This Life Chooses You
by goldeneaglle
Summary: Only days after the death of her uncle, the Shang Dragon, Korani is chosen to train as a Shang herself, with highs hopes of being the next Dragon. Rated T just in case.
1. Death and Love

Author's Note: I put this story up ages ago and now as I continue I am also heavily editing the first few chapters.

Disclaimers: Rani is mine. Everything else belongs to Tamora Pierce.

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Chapter One

The girl blinked at the softness of the sun, her lips parted slightly as it brushed over her face. Her chronically red cheeks caught the light in a way that Rani always winced at when she saw her reflection. Ma always called her vain, but no one could deny that it just looked plain bad. Gods curse red skin!

It wasn't as though the sun deserved its place today, besides. It was a time of mourning, for Rani's uncle, the Shang Dragon, had died a week earlier to the day. It seemed like less time, though, to the child, because she and her mother had only received the news the day before.

Liam Ironarm had been her uncle, her hero and role model, but most of all, her friend. He was always out doing good, of course, and having grand adventures, but when he could, he would take the time to visit his little niece, to laugh his wonderful laugh and twinkle his eyes and hug her tight until she squirmed away, giggling. Besides which, he was more a father than anyone else she had ever known. The girl had never known her father, and never wanted to. Liam was a better than perfect substitute for him.

She couldn't giggle now, of course. Korani was too solemn, too sad. She was usually a perfectly happy girl, very much a sweet little child, but she figured she was allowed to be sad now. No one would say that she was only seven, that she should feel happier about life. She loved Liam; she would remember him forever, and never stop loving. So many people claimed that they loved the Shang Dragon for the good that he had done, but only a few knew him for real. Rani was one of those people.

Slowly pushing her white sheets off of herself, Rani shifted in bed, though didn't quite get up yet. One more minute; she could stay here for one more moment before slipping out of bed to go feed her dog. Even as she groaned at getting up, though, she couldn't help but smile at the thought of her furry friend. Butterfly was truly the silliest of dogs, but he had stole the hearts of both Rani and her mother when he had pranced into their house, tail wagging, tongue sticking out as he panted happily.

Finally, she moved her legs until they were hanging over the bed, and touched first her toes, then the rest of her feet, to the cool floor. Rani shook her hair out, running her fingers through the brownish-red mess that inhabited the top of her head. She was about to comb it out when she heard Butterfly barking outside her door. Well, he wouldn't care what her hair looked like, she decided. She could fix it after feeding him.

Rani stroked the dog almost immediately after opening the door, smiling at the feel of his furry, warm head. Yawning, she began to walk down the hall, Butterfly at her side. As she did so, she thought about events that she hoped were to come. The next day, Shang masters were coming to her village to possibly pick out new students. A student of the Shang! How wonderful would that be? That was her dream, to be chosen this year. After all, it would be her last; she was seven, the oldest age that a child could be chosen to become a Shang. Oh, to be chosen. Gods, please let it happen!

And if it did, well, Rani would put everything into her training. She had a dream more private than simply becoming a Shang. She wanted to be the next Dragon. It was unlikely, she knew, but if it happened, her life would be everything that she wished.

Sighing, Rani reached down again to pet Butterfly. Hopefully, the day to come would be the best one possible.

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	2. Wisdom

"Stand up tall," her mother murmured. "Never look down, or let the fire flee from your eyes. Look as smart as I know you are, my Korani."

"I know, Mama. I know that I can do this. I cannot think that I will not be chosen, because they will see my defeat and turn their heads. I need to believe that I will be a Shang, and make sure that the Masters know that."

With a sad sort of smile, the one of a mother who loved her child and wanted her to be happy but didn't want her to leave, Lia tugged at the end of one of her daughter's long, red-brown braids. "You will." She rubbed away a small mark of dirt from Rani's forehead. "You look so beautiful. I will remember your spark and sweetness when you leave, for I know that you will be chosen this year for sure. I will miss you sorely, dear heart, but I will be happy knowing that you are achieving your dreams."

"Thank you, Ma. You don't know what that means to me." On an impulse, the excited little girl leapt into her mother's arms. "If I am chosen, you know that the one person who I will truly miss will be you." She would be sad to leave her friends, too, of course, but her friends all had better companions. Not that she minded. She was clever, and spent a lot of time doing solitary activities such as reading and writing. She would have liked to have better friends, but she had a lot of people who she was friendly with. Rani wasn't the kind of person who was hated, or who loathed others; she just spent a lot of time not socializing. Her mother, though, she would miss, would ache for entirely.

A bell rang out to announce both the time and the arrival of the Shang masters. With a wild array of emotions, the five, six, and seven year olds slowly began to walk down the paths that lead to the center of the village. Whether they liked it or not, all of the non-gifted children had to make this trip every year.

Rani, for her part, turned her head, cheeks flushed with anticipation. Kissing her cheek, her mother said, "Go on, Rani. Go convince them to pick you."

The girl turned her head back to the woman who had raised her for the past seven years, who would miss her beyond words if she were to be chosen – no, when she was chosen. "I will," she promised, hugging her Ma once more. "I will." She pulled away. "I love you."

Watching her child turn to walk to where all the children were gathering, Lia whispered, "You have no idea how proud Liam would be. He would be here watching, knowing you were chosen. I know it." A delayed response, she added, "I love you, too," but Rani was, of course, too far away to hear her by now. She had been for a while.

***

A row of children waited with bated breath. There were perhaps twenty of them, maybe a few more or less. That was a few less than usual, Rani knew, and maybe that would improve her chances of getting picked. Maybe. Hopefully.

There weren't many requirements to be a Shang, not really. A child had to be five, six, or seven, not have any gift, and not have an illness that was recurring and would seriously cripple them. Really, those were the only preliminary requirements, though of course the Masters who picked new students had very trained eyes and looked for a certain, apparent level of strength and intelligence in the children. If no one looked the part, no one would be chosen; this was not uncommon. Rarely would more than one child be chosen from any particular village.

Some of the girls and boys wanted to be chosen, like Rani. They hoped beyond hope that the Shang masters would notice them, pick them. Others, like Rani's sort-of friend Pilara, wanted to be a seamstress. Only seven, she had already picked up an aptitude for sewing that her mother bragged about whenever possible. Ellvi, on the other hand, wanted to be a "real" knight, as she called it. Everyone had heard about the Lioness – (Liam had loved her, Rani knew, she was a part of her uncle's life) – and Ellvi had decided, to the dismay of her parents, that she would be the second female to become a knight. After all, Alanna had managed it, hadn't she? If she had, so could anyone, right?

In fact, there were few people who Rani knew really wanted to be Shang. Oh, Coby, maybe, but he only wanted it for the glory. A couple others who Rani didn't know that well, possibly, but a lot of people shied away from the idea of the Shang life. They all knew that it was hard, would break them down a lot before they got to be built up again. Some people didn't make it. The Shang didn't force anyone to stay, though someone who could not handle the lifestyle could never really go back home, at least not in her village. Pride dictated too much, and a deserter of the Shang (always a deserter, never a kinder word) was looked down on in her village, and many others, forever and on.

Rani stared straight ahead, forcing herself not to look at the masters as they walked up and down the line unless they were right in front of her. The second time down the line, they began to tap children lightly on the shoulder. These boys and girls walked back to their parents, some with smiles of relief, some with the possibility of tears hanging in their eyes.

Finally, there were only five of them left, Rani included. Coby was one of them; she could tell because he was on her immediate left. On her right was Ellvi. She could see the vague outline of two others in her peripheral vision, but she could not see them. Oh, Gods. She might get chosen. She was so close! She had never been narrowed down to the group of just five before!

She could see as they tapped Ellvi out, to her obvious relief. They kicked out whoever was next to her, too, so that just Rani, Coby, and whoever was next to him where left. And then, just when Rani thought that maybe they would pick her (finally!) the two Masters who were choosing stood up, most likely to confer.

Impatient as she was, the girl had to force herself not to start tapping. She stood still, still, still. She would not move. She couldn't. And she still hadn't when they walked back over after what seemed like at least a few days, maybe more. Beside her, she could see Coby fidgeting. The Shang masters could see this, too, and told him to leave. With an upset sigh, he did so.

And then. And then! They told the five year old next to her to depart as well. It was just her. Just Rani! They would pick her! Well, maybe they would. She had seen them get down to just one person and then decide not to take anyone at all, and simply leave. Oh, how she yearned for them to pick her, not to turn around and depart!

One of the Shang masters kneeled to face her. He had to lean down low; she was tiny, even for her age. Rani always hoped that would be a good thing. Anyone could be big and strong, but if she kept true to her size, she would be able to fit into small places, spy a lot easier than most people could, do a lot of things that others couldn't. Now, though, she wondered if it would be bad. Would she be too small? Gods, please let her be not too small!

The Shang lifted his hand, then brought it rushing to her face. She didn't flinch, not even the tiniest bit, not when it was a foot away from her face, not when it was half an inch from banging into her cheek and he stopped. She stood there for a moment, breathing lightly, as he stood. What had happened? What was going on?

And then she realized – she had passed! That was it! Gruffly, he said, "You'll do," before turning away.

Thank the Gods for Liam! He had told her, had said that any flinching was a sign of weakness, that they would do something to make sure she wouldn't move, not an inch, when she was about to be hurt. The Dragon – no, the former Dragon, she thought to herself pointedly – would help her even in death. As she was trained, she would remember his wisdom, and would always be guided by his words.

Another thing he had said that she would always hold close to her heart. "There's a big difference between knighthood and the life of a Shang," he would tell her as he stroked her hair. "As a knight, you choose your life. You go to the palace and you are trained no matter what. But the Shang life – well, it chooses you. This life, Rani, this life chooses you, and you are just a pawn, answering constantly to its demands."

This life, it had chosen her completely. As she walked to her mother to bid her farewell, and say one last time how much she loved her, Rani knew that she would always hold that particular piece of Liam's endless wisdom close to her heart.


	3. The Hare

She was clever. She knew that. Where most people grumbled at academic classes, she liked them. Well, literature and writing classes, anyway. History was okay. Mathematics, her last class of the day, was alright, but she didn't love it; the only blessing was that the professor, the Shang Hare, was one of her favorites. Like Rani, the Hare was small, though she was also a bit more reserved than most of her students. For the first few days, Rani couldn't help but wonder how such a quiet, seemingly drawn in woman had made it in the Shang world.

After about a week of classes, however, Rani had happened upon the Hare heading down to the areas reserved for controlled fights. Intrigued, the girl had followed her professor, and had watched with wide eyes as she practically flattened the Shang Snake and the Polar Bear after him. Suddenly, Korani was filled with respect and admiration for her teacher. She could see all of the qualities that she had already heard the Shangs preach: agility, speed, strength, liveliness, focus. She could see how the woman had passed the Shang ordeal and made it a year in the real world. And her punches and swiftness proved that the name Hare was not because it was small and more prey than predator, but because of its ability to not only fight but be quick, and still, as well.

The next day, after class, the Hare called out to Rani. The girl turned, telling her new friends to go on without her, and strode over to the teacher. Eyes bright, but with the mix of tired that she had learned would not go away for a long, long time, she asked, "Yes, Ma'am?"

"Sit down, Rani."

The girl obeyed, sitting down on the end of one of the student desks. She didn't feel like getting all the way into a chair, and she didn't think that the Hare would mind. A little confused, she waited for the Hare to speak. It took a moment, but after considering Rani a little, the Hare said,

"Liam Ironarm was your uncle, correct?"

Swallowing hard, the brunette nodded, murmuring, "Yes'm." Where was this going?

"He was a good man. He would be proud of you."

Again, she bobbed her head up and down once. She wanted the Hare to get to the point; the girl was still very sore when it came to Liam. After all, it had only been just over a week.

"I saw you watching me yesterday, fighting Robin and Sal. The Snake and the Polar Bear," she amended, as Rani nodded once more. "If you noticed, I used my movements and my speed more than fighting. I only actually hit them a couple of times."

"Yes'm." She'd noticed.

"Well –" The Hare seemed to contemplate for a moment before continuing, "Well, I know you haven't started fighting classes yet, but when you do, that's what you should do."

"Ma'am?" She was confused again now.

"You're small for your age, like me." Rani smiled. She liked being compared to her favorite professor. "You'll build muscles, of course, but unless you grow greatly, which I doubt because your frame is so tiny, your agility will most likely be your greatest strength. Keep that in mind."

"Yes'm," once more. She was excited now. She liked getting advice from the Hare.

"Alright, run along now, Rani." She smiled. "And keep up the good work."

A final time, Rani said, "Yes'm!" before running off to join her friends up in her room, where they always studied and did work together. She couldn't help smiling all the way there, thinking again and again that the Hare had given her advice. The Hare liked her!

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	4. Ransom

A/N: I feel like I'm stealing Ransom's name from somewhere. Am I? Does anyone know? Ha. I may just be paranoid.

Also, Liam's horse isn't named, is he? I made up a name because I couldn't remember it having one/him ever saying it.

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"You won't actually be riding for a while," the Shang Leopard informed his students, "but you'll learn to feed and groom your horses. Your training as riders will be staggered. Those of you with more background experience, and those who show more aptitude for horses in general, will be riding in as soon as two weeks. Others may have to wait over a month, sometimes two months. Do you understand?"

The children nodded solemnly. Yes, yes, they understood. Could they see the horses now? Well, that was how Rani felt. She knew that some of the girls and boys were a little nervous about having to pick horses, but she was excited. She'd always liked horses.

The Shang said that it was important to bond with a horse, even before learning such things as foot fighting. If a person couldn't be kind to an animal, they said, then that person didn't deserve to be a Shang at all. Rani was glad for their methods, as she knew that muscled strength, as the Hare had pointed out, would be her greatest weakness. She'd seen some of the older students practicing fighting, and there were a lot of set exercises, especially among those in their second year, where her quickness really wouldn't be able to help her.

As she took care of a horse, though, the Shang would be able to see that they had chosen her for a good reason, and hopefully she would be one of the first people to actually to be able to ride. She wasn't spectacular, of course, but she was relatively good for someone her age. She'd even practiced a little on Liam's horse, Laughter. Oh, she missed that horse. He looked menacing, but anyone who knew him could tell that he was really quite a sweetheart. Laughter. She wondered where he was new, who he had gone to when his master had died. Maybe the Lioness, but she doubted it. From what Rani had heard, Alanna had her very own warhorse, and she wouldn't just give it up to take care of Laughter. Who, though?

She almost leapt into the air when the Leopard said, "Alright. Head into the stable and try to find a horse who will work well with you. Remember, if you find that you and your chosen horse simply cannot get along, you may trade after the initial period of two weeks, but we highly discourage that unless it is absolutely necessary, and would much prefer that you find the perfect horse the first time around."

Next to Rani, her friend Deltonia was clearly forcing herself very hard not to jump around elatedly. Rani grabbed her hand, squeezing tightly. Like Rani, Toni was looking forward to picking a horse. The other girl's family owned a farm, so she knew a lot about riding. Along with the rest of the group, they entered the stable, inhaling the strong horsey smell and looking out for a creature who seemed to match their temperaments.

Almost right away, Toni saw the one for her. She ran to his stall, grinning as he pranced happily at her touch. Rani, however, was not so lucky. She knew she would fit with a sleek horse, but she wanted a strong one, too, one that would balance her out, have strengths where she had weaknesses. There was no horse that she was drawn to initially, though, and soon she was one of the few children who still hadn't found a horse.

Just as she was beginning to think she was being too picky, she saw him. Oh, Goddess, he was gorgeous. Immediately, she was at his stall, standing on her toes and reaching out to let him sniff her hand. He leaned his neck down and did so. Quickly bored with her hand, he began sniffing around her shirt, trying to find something to eat.

"Here." Rani turned to see the Shang Leopard standing next to her, a cube of sugar held out between her fingertips. She took it with a smile, then held it out in the flat palm of her hand for the beautiful almost-white horse to take in his teeth.

"Thank you, sir."

"You're welcome." He reached out to pat the horse's nose. "Ransom is a good choice for you, though a little big, maybe."

"Pardon, sir, but I think that all may be a little big for me." He chuckled, and she continued, "His name is Ransom?"

The Leopard nodded. "King's Ransom." He scratched behind the horse's fuzzy ear. "He's a good horse. I learned on his dam, actually. Bought her from the school so I could bring her with me for my year in the world."

"Is she here, sir? Can I see her?" The girl studied the man's face absentmindedly. He was maybe thirty, thirty five at the most, with the guarded kind of expression that many of the Shang seemed to carry on them. He had the kind of impossible tan skin that only existed on people who spend the vast majority of their time in the sun. He also had some sort of circular scar near his right eye that she couldn't fathom the cause of. She'd no idea what made a scar that shape.

His face grew a little sad as he shook his head. "She passed on last year."

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir!"

"No, she had a good, long life. Died of old age. It was her time." He stroked Ransom's nose one last time before saying, "Get to know him."

"Yessir." She watched for a moment as the Leopard walked to the next student, a five year old whose name Rani didn't know, and the horse that he had chosen.

Ransom neighed quietly, trying to get her attention. She laughed, giving it to him. "Good horse," she said, petting him, and again, "You're a good boy, Ransom. What a good horse."

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And ignore old reviews because they pertain to chapters that no longer exist, and many make no sense any longer.


	5. Complications

Review-y type stuff:

**Take Your Bow**: I'm glad you like it! Any suggestions on what you'd like to see Rani have to face in the near future?

**Too-much-of-a-book-lover**: I am I am I am! :) clearly.

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"Very good, Kithra."

"Show off," Rani muttered to her friend Lana, who nodded her agreement."

"What was that, Korani?" the teacher asked coldly. The Shang Owl had quickly caused history to become Rani's least favorite subject, which was really a shame because the girl was actually interested in what they were learning. She couldn't figure out why the professor of history hated her so much; after finally asking one of the friendlier ten year olds, she learned that the Owl had some people she loved every year and some she hated, and that was that. Rani would never be able to do anything to change that.

The Owl seemed to make split second decisions about someone, and they stuck in her mind forever. Kithra, big surprise, didn't have any friends to talk to in class, so the Owl liked her. Rani and Lana, on the other hand, were always giggling and talking – well, not always, but often enough. The Owl hated them even when they were perfect students, now.

"We last left off talking about the beginning of the history of the current line of kings in Tortall, the Conte line. Who would like to remind us who the first king was?"

Oh, look at that. Kithra wanted to remind them! Rani rolled her eyes at Lana, who nodded back in a bit of exasperation. Honestly, some people never knew when to let off.

***

Stifling a yawn, Toni sat down at the table across from Rani and Lana. She mumbled out a soft "hello" that the other two girls replied to in turn.

"Tired, huh?" said Lana, smiling.

"Mmmhmm," was the most that Toni could manage.

"Yeah, I'm getting there, too," said Rani, ripping off a piece of her roll to eat. "It's worth it to be here, though."

"What's worth it?"

The three girls glanced up as Isai and Ramsey sat down next to Toni. Typical boys, they both started grabbing food almost before they'd stopped standing.

"Hi to you, too," said Lana, grinning, at the same time that Rani replied,

"Being tired all the time is okay, because it's worth it to get to be here."

"What?" the two boys said at once, having been unable to hear anything that either Rani or Lana had said.

"I said hi," Lana informed them.

"Hi back." That was Isai.

"What did you say, Rani?" Ramsey inquired of her.

"For the third time?" She smiled at him as he nodded. "I said, being here is worth being tired all the time." She took a sip of water. "And the aching the second year students say comes when we start fighting."

"That's two days from now!" Ramsey realized with excitement. He was Rani's polar opposite in looks; he was tall for seven, with the solid look of someone who would get far bigger and stronger with time. His blonde hair was cut short, but he'd told Rani and the others that he was going to grow it out now that he was away from his mother – not much, not like a girl's, but maybe an inch or two longer.

"Unfortunately." Rani had been counting down the days with worry.

"Don't be such a grump," Lana said, pushing her friend lighting with her shoulder. "It'll be useful, even if it's horrible. You're the one who said you've wanted to be here since forever."

"Yeah," was the brunette's dull reply. "I guess." She took another sip of water. "Not that I don't want to be here, of course. I'm just saying I wouldn't mind waiting a little longer to have to fight. Now, if I could start riding Ransom…" Rani sighed wistfully.

"Hopefully it'll only be a week until then!" Toni said, perking up suddenly. "I want to ride Pine."

"You guys have fun with that," Isai sighed. "I don't think I'll be riding Bluebell for ages. Months, maybe." The boy had never been on a horse in his life. "At least I've done some fighting before."

"Either way," Lana said, shrugging, "I'm just glad to be starting something that doesn't involve math or, you know, words."

"Maybe if we could get rid of some of those," Toni mumbled tiredly, "but we have to take the fighting and riding on top of them." She groaned and dropped her head back onto her arms.

Rani yawned. "Oh, Goddess. I swear, you're contagious, Toni."

"Oh, good, another reason to stay away from idiots like you." Rani froze at the sound of the voice that had just entered the conversation. "What do you have, squirt? Pity they send sick kids home. Well, not so much a pity as a relief, in this case, I suppose."

"Go away, Rito." Lana was bold. Too bold.

"Lana," Isai muttered. "Be quiet."

"Ooh, you should listen to your little boyfriend." Rito was ten, a fifth year student who had been chosen at five. He was nothing out of the ordinary by his looks, not too tall or strong. Average weight. He had decided that he would own the place, though, and the fear that people had of him gave him five times the strength he would have had otherwise.

Lana stood, making Rani sigh. She couldn't leave her friend standing up to someone alone. She got to her feet, too. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Ramsey stand, and Isai only a moment later. Toni stayed down, but that was fair enough, because Rani was pretty sure that her friend was dead asleep.

"There are teachers watching," growled Ramsey. "You wouldn't want to start anything with them watching."

"Yeah, you'd be pretty humiliated if one of us broke your nose after you'd threatened us, huh?" Rani couldn't believe that had come out of her mouth. At her side, Lana smiled, holding in a laugh.

Rito cast his eyes around, seeing that the Shang Hare had noticed them and looked ready to rise from her spot.

"Some other time…" He glared at them for a moment before turning and striding off, a few of his friends – that was, people who didn't want to get on his wrong side – jumped up and joined him.

"Some other time," Lana agreed quietly, sitting at the same time as Ramsey and Isai. Rani followed her lead, though there was no point, as she had lost her appetite. Some other time. Why did she have the feeling that Rito had said that to her, not to Lana or the boys? Oh, Goddess. Hopefully her odd feeling wasn't true. Hopefully it wasn't real at all.

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As always, reviews would be wonderful!** Suggestions** (cough) would be great.


	6. At Last

**Take Your Bow**: I'm glad you like the addition of Rito! I wasn't sure I was making him work right. We'll see more of him soon. Also, here's the fighting. Nothing huge, just a class, but she may or may not have the chance to use what she's learned against Rito soon… :)

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She swallowed, staring nervously at Ramsey, who winked at her. The teachers had paired them off randomly, and she had ended up with the biggest person in their class. (She'd known he was large, but it was more obvious now that everyone was set up in two lines. She could clearly see that his head was at least a good few inches above the next tallest person.) It looked funny, one of the smallest kids against the largest.

The professor, the Shang Eagle, didn't care about that, though. She was of the mind that a Shang should be able to defend themselves and fight back against anyone, even if they were far smaller than the other person. Well, no surprise there, considering she was one of the tallest teachers Rani had. She was slim, but her muscles were obvious, and she would hardly have to face very many people who were taller than her. Oh, the Shang Leopard was bigger than her, Rani supposed, but not by much.

Her hands were balled into little fists. Everyone else's were, too, but hers just felt so tiny. Little little hands. How could she manage to hurt anyone when two of her fists were the size of one of theirs? Oh, she wished she hadn't gotten Ramsey. At least Toni was smaller than him, and didn't look so frightening. The same was true of Lana and even Isai. Not that Ramsey would hurt her; she was glad of that, but still. He just seemed so very intimidating when he was standing there with his fists pointing in her direction.

"The line on my right will be defending." That was Rani's side. She swallowed and put her fists up a little higher. "Left, you will be attacking. Don't injure your partner, but make it clear that you could if they don't defend themselves properly. Remember, just the simple punch and kick motion that we've been practicing. Go on my count. Three, two, one."

It was impressive how put together they were. Almost as one – well, maybe as two or three; they weren't perfect yet – the left line threw out their fists and kicked up with their legs, and later Rani would marvel at how the young children here were expected to work together more cleanly than many older folks. For now, though, she just concentrated on stopping Ramsey. With the rest of her line, she blocked the hands with her arms, and the legs with a sort of swipe that was intended to knock the attacker over. That was the part that didn't go so well in a lot of cases. A couple of people managed to knock over their partners, but only three or four. Rani was not one of them. (Isai, she noticed, was, and Lana fell to the ground with a bit of a thump.)

"Again," said the Eagle as the few fallen attackers scrambled to their feet. "Defenders, you attack this time."

They did so. Ramsey didn't manage to knock Rani over, though she couldn't help but wonder if he was being nice. He probably could have, if he'd really tried, but she tried to pretend she just had some amount of grace that had kept her standing.

About the same amount of people fell this time, and they quickly got to their feet before the Eagle told the original attackers to attack again. And then the defenders. The attackers. The defenders. And so it went until people were getting so tired that they were falling over where they wouldn't have earlier. Finally, the Eagle told them that they were done, that they could go. They strode off, too tired to run back to the school building where they would soon be fed. Oh, thank the Goddess for food!

***

A few days later, Rani was sure that she would never stop being sore. Every day, they got new partners and learned a new move, and the rumor was that they were going to start fighting with practice daggers soon. The first years had become quieter, not talking as much during supper, just eating slowly before stumbling up to their rooms. The Eagle worked them hard. She knew that it would be a good thing in the long run, but she couldn't quite see the point now.

One day, as the students were getting ready to take the trek to dinner, the Shang Leopard asked a few of them to stay behind, including Rani and Toni. She had seen the Leopard walk up, but had figured he just had some extra time and wanted to watch his students in action. Curiously, she glanced at Toni, and they walked over to the Leopard along with the rest of the students who he had called out to.

"Come with me." They did so, following him back to the stables. She usually enjoyed going to see and take care of Ransom, but right now she just dreaded going up the hill that lead there, tired as her legs were. Eventually, they reached the horses, though she had no idea how she'd managed it, considering how numb her legs were by then. As they stood outside, the Leopard turned, saying,

"I have been watching all of you, and have decided that it is time for you to start riding." Rani's eyes grew wide and excited, and she could see Toni do the same next to her. "I know you all are tired and hungry, but it is a feeling you will have to get more used to. You will continue to come with the rest of the students to groom and feed your horses, but after your fighting lesson you will come here for riding." A couple of students groaned quietly; they wanted to eat and sleep, not ride their horses. Rani was not one of those people. She didn't care about being tired, if it meant riding Ransom. Besides, it wasn't as though she would be able to do anything about it, even if she didn't want to ride. The masters had the final word on everything.

They all walked to their horses, bridling and putting on the saddles as they had learned. (They had a little help with the saddles; the horses were too big for some of the children to reach their backs, and the saddles were very heavy, especially after fighting.) Finally, when all the horses were ready and the Leopard had helped the students mount and made sure they were holding the reins correctly, he had them follow him outside into the field near the stables. They started with just walking for the night, but even that was wonderful.

At the end of the lesson, they walked back to the stables, where they dismounted, took the saddles and brides off of the horses, and groomed their steeds once again. When they were finally done, the students began to trickle out to go eat dinner.

"Korani," the Leopard called out before she could leave. Sighing, she turned, questions in her eyes. What did he want?

He beckoned her back to Ransom's stall, where they both proceeded to pet the horse. "You like Ransom, do you not, Rani?" She nodded. Of course she liked Ransom.

"I love him, sir. He's wonderful." With that, she kissed the horse's furry nose.

"Enough to have him be yours?"

"Yessir." She stared at the Leopard, confused.

"He is yours, then."

She continued staring in disbelief, then finally stuttered out, "S-sir?"

The Leopard sighed. "Rani, the Dragon left a note saying that he knew he was going to die. In it, he left his horse to you." Her eyes grew wider. "But the sweet thing died the day after its master. In mourning, perhaps, or maybe simply because he was old. He knew, though, I think, that Liam was gone." Rani swallowed. "The Dragon had some money. You know that." She nodded. He wasn't quick to spend, and their family had never been poor. Not rich, either, but well off. "I think he maybe knew that Laughter would move on, too, or maybe he just though you wouldn't want him, because he left you a sum of money that he said was to be used on a horse for you, whether it be because you didn't get Laughter or when you eventually needed a new horse."

Rani was dumbfounded, to say the least. Ransom was hers. Ransom was hers? Ransom was hers!

"Thank you, sir," she whispered, swallowing again.

"I am simply the messenger. It was the Dragon who I wish you could thank, but I think he knows."

"Yessir."

There was a moment of quiet between them before the Leopard said, "Well, run off to dinner."

"Yessir." And she did.

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I love reviews :)

Also, I'd love opinions on how quickly the story should progress. I've kept it just to the beginning of Rani's training for now, but that'll start getting slow. Do you think I should skip a month? More? Less? How fast do you want her to get older? Let me know, please!!!


	7. Fighting Back

**Airlin:** Yeah, I'll probably keep going after she gets her name, assuming I'm not totally sick of writing about Rani and I can think of enough to do with her.

**Goaligirl12:** I'm glad you like it! Thanks for reviewing!

**Take Your Bow:** Thanks for reviewing again! I'm probably going to keep jumping ahead anywhere from two or three weeks to a month or two from now on. It kind of depends on what makes sense, really.

**too-much-of-a-book-lover:** Is this the kind of pace that you think works?

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"It's like a study group," Rani explained emphatically for the umpteenth time, "Except instead of working on math or history, we work on fighting. That way, we all get stronger, and we'll do it before the rest of our class, because they all just come back and eat and go to sleep."

"Ran, we'll get exhausted."

"Yeah, but think about it, Toni. We're exhausted already, right?" There was a grumbling moan of agreement. It turned out that two and a half weeks did not get someone used to fighting all the time. "So what'll, say, ten more minutes do to us? And then fifteen, then twenty or thirty or an hour? We'll practice even before dinner, so we don't have the urge to just go to bed – we'll tell ourselves we have to work for a certain amount of time before we can eat."

The nice thing about training to become a Shang was that here, meals were basically always being served. Rani had heard that at the palace, where pages were trained to become knights, there were set dining times that everyone had to show up to without being late at all or they got in trouble. To Rani, that sounded ridiculous. What if someone didn't feel like eating, or would rather be training or studying? The students here had enough demands on them that to structure their very sparse free time just wouldn't make sense. Well, maybe the pages just didn't have to do as much as students of the Shang. That was possible. Or maybe knights were just crazy. That could be it, too.

"It'll make us even more tired. And hungry." Isai's stomach grumbled right on cue, and the others couldn't help but laugh.

"But not much. And the more we train at night, on our own time, the easier it'll be to work in class, so eventually we won't be as tired anyway."

"I like it," decided Lana, and four pairs of eyes turned to her. "Rani's right, why not? It won't put that much more of a strain on our bodies. This way, the Eagle won't have as much of a reason to yell at us, because we'll be better than everyone else."

"Not the Eagle," murmured Deltonia absentmindedly, and everyone looked at her, a little confused. Seeing the inquiry written across their faces, Toni explained, "The Eagle's leaving. Haven't you heard? Someone else is taking her place."

"She's leaving?" asked Ramsey. "Why is she leaving?"

Toni shrugged. "The Shang become restless, and the Eagle's been here for ages. The older students say that there's rarely a teacher who stays more than a year or two at most. They want to move on, go travel and fight again. Haven't you heard?"

Four heads shook. Of course, Toni would be the one who knew. She heard everything, somehow. If Toni weren't lined up to be a Shang, she would have been a great spy, Rani mused. Well, then again, as a Shang, she still could be a spy, if she wanted to be.

"I hope the Hare doesn't leave," Rani announced. Isai nodded his agreement; the Hare was his favorite teacher, too. "Or the Leopard. But I wouldn't mind at all if the Owl were to leave soon."

"Guys, what if the next fighting professor is a real nightmare?" Lana asked pointedly. "We'll want to show we can do something so we aren't being told off all the time."

"Come on, guys," Rani pleaded.

"Besides," Lana continued in a voice that suddenly made everyone freeze, even Rani. Lana only used that voice when she was up to something. "If we learn how to fight better, maybe we can fight back against Rito." Toni and Isai groaned as one. They didn't want to fight him; they were both a little scared of him. So was Rani, for that matter, but she wasn't showing it. (Ramsey she wasn't sure about. He didn't act scared of the bully, but maybe he was just hiding it like Rani.)

"Lana's right," Rani said quietly, not letting her voice shake. "Someone has to get rid of him. The older students could, but they don't really care because he isn't trying to come after them, and all the younger students are too scared because they know he's stronger. But if we get strong enough, we can stop him. Who else is going to do something?"

"No one," Ramsey murmured. He didn't sound too thrilled, but he recognized that Lana and Rani were right. "No one will stop him. Rani's right. Let's learn. Let's fight back."

"We won't make you guys join in," Rani said, looking at Toni and Isai in turn, "but it would help a lot if we had you on board."

She bit her lip, hoping they would say yes. The more support she got on this, the better. At last, Toni closed the book that she had been studying out of, saying, "Fine, fine. I'll help. But I'm stopping if I start falling asleep in class!"

"_Thank_ you," Rani replied. "Isai?"

Everyone was looking at the boy. He looked a little nervous as he glanced around, and finally gave in when he looked at Toni. He had a bit of trouble saying no to the blonde girl when she looked at him like that. "Yeah, okay," he said. "But I'm with Tonia on this. If the Owl start yelling at me for being too sleepy, I'm stopping."

"Okay," agreed Rani, smiling. "So we're all in this together, yeah?"

"Yes," said Lana immediately, with Ramsey as her echo, and Isai and Toni nodded.

"Good." Rani swallowed. "Okay. Um. I guess I'm not really sure where to start, actually." She considered the time. "We should head down to the stables, and tonight after riding, we'll come back up here to my room and practice." They were all riding now, even Isai, who had surprised himself and the others with how quickly he learned. "Okay?"

"Sounds good," concurred Lana, standing. The others murmured their agreement, standing as well to head down to Ransom, Pine, and the other horses.

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As always, I would love reviews/suggestions. Constructive criticism can be just as useful as saying good stuff, cause then it'll get better!


	8. Rito

**A/N:** Just wanted to suggest Star Trek to everyone if they haven't seen it yet. It was amazingg. Especially Zachary Quinto, who was spectactular.

**quickreader93:** At this point, I'm planning on it having a happy ending with some sad parts in between, but that could change depending on what I think of doing. Do you think it should?

**too-much-of-a-book-lover:** Thanks! Glad you like.

**Palace-of-Nightmares:** You read my mind! Everything can only go right for so long, and it's way more fun when the main characters are getting bloodied up. I mean, what? I'm not sadistic… :D By the way, I love your avatar.

**Take a Bow** and **Airlin:** As always, thanks for reviewing! Hope you like this chapter!

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As soon as she heard his voice, she knew that she was going to be absolutely flattened.

They had been training, and they were getting good, but they weren't anywhere near_ that_ good. Even all five of them together wouldn't have been able to hold him off, and she was alone. Why had she left her bedroom door open? That was very stupid of her, especially when she was by herself. Not that Rito should have been in the first years dorms after eleven anyway especially not on the girls' floor, but that was just like him. Oh, Goddess. What was she going to do?

Slowly, she turned. She could call out for Toni, whose room was across the hall, but she kept her up late enough with fighting practice. Now that they'd moved on to daggers, it was especially tiring, and she really didn't want to bother her friend. Maybe she would have gotten Lana, but she'd wake up the rest of the floor in the process; Lana was at the entire opposite end of the floor. Oh, great.

"Go away, Rito." Not that it would work, but Rani figured maybe she would give it a try.

"Not a chance." Well, not that she was surprised.

He walked towards her. She swallowed. He was now blocking her off from her dagger. It was wooden, but sharp, and would be some help to her if she could only get at it. Why hadn't she grabbed it when he'd first walked in instead of waiting until she could no longer get around him? Well, hopefully the amount of practicing she and her friends had done would mean that she was just as good with just her hands anyway.

Okay. That was highly unlikely.

He grabbed the front of her shirt and twisted it. "Teach you to humiliate me, little girl."

"What?" she gasped out as he threw her to the ground, making her back ache something terrible. He couldn't just mean for insinuating that she and Lana could easily beat him up? Well, maybe. He was the kind of person who seemed to care about that kind of thing, and a few people had giggled.

He threw himself down on top of her, straddling her stomach to keep her from getting up as he punched her cheek. _Thank you, Goddess,_ Rani thought with a slight sigh of relief, _that he is not old enough to think of doing anything else._ She knew what a boy could do to a mostly-helpless girl if he tried, and she was dead grateful that he seemed intent only on beating her.

Readying herself, she balled her hands into fists and punched him in the nose with all that was in her. He yelped loudly, jumping back as he cursed.

"Told you I would break your nose," she said before the world went black around her.

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**A/N:** Hmmm, what will happen? How can she hold him off passed out? Come back next chapter to see! :)  
Sorry this was so short, by the way. I don't have time to write a lot more right now.

Remember, the more you review, the faster I update! Theoretically.


	9. Not the Only One Who Cares

**quickreader93:** don't worry, I'm not going to kill her :)

**m:** thanks

**Palace-of-Nightmares:** Yeah, he rocks.

**Take Your Bow:** Aww, thanks!

**Empress-Nat:** I'm glad you like her!

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Her brown eyes flickered open slowly as a quiet groan escaped from her throat without her permission. Why did she hurt so much? She felt as though the entire right side of her face had fallen off. Feeling around with her tongue, she felt a big hole where one of her molars should have been. _Uh oh._ That couldn't be good.

The black spots dancing around her eyes slowly vanished, and the room came into focus around her. If she'd had more energy in her, she would have leapt up; but as it was, she simply stared around, wondering where she was. This didn't look familiar.

"Korani. You're awake."

She turned her head to see a smiling, unfamiliar man sitting in a chair at her side. She mumbled something, trying to agree but failing as she realized she couldn't quite form words yet. Egh. She felt weird.

"How do you feel?"

Concentrating, she finally said, "Fine."

He raised a thick eyebrow. "I'll ask again. How do you feel?"

She groaned, rolling her head so that it was looking up again. "Miserable," she mumbled out.

"Better," he said, nodding. "Do you know your name?"

Her mouth was adjusting now. "Korani Liasri." A lot of girls in her position – named for their mothers, not their fathers – hated admitting to that. She didn't mind. She was proud of her mother and loved her, and people back home had learned not to bother her about it. Compared to many people here, she was small and weak, but back home, she'd been, if not strong, scrappy and determined.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

She glanced over. "Three."

"Good." He jotted something down on a piece of paper. "Does anything feel broken?"

_Everything,_ she wanted to say, but she didn't. Instead, she closed her eyes, focusing on her body. She hurt all over, but nothing in particular really felt as though it had snapped. She was just sore and bruised. "No."

"Good," he repeated. "Do you remember what happened?"

She thought. What had happened? Rani's mind was all over the place, and she took a minute to recall how Rito had come into her room, knocked her over, beaten on her. She knew very well that the students weren't supposed to tell on others, though, and so she simply used the time honored explanation: "Yessir. I fell down, sir."

By his reaction, he was clearly very used to this response, murmuring only, "You fell down on your back and managed to bruise up your face and knock out a tooth?"

"Yessir."

He smiled at her. "Of course." He stood. "The Shang Whale will be in to see you shortly."

Rani sighed, closing her eyes. The Whale was the only Shang who had been at the school for longer than two years; in fact, she'd been around for nearly ten. The woman had been badly injured in a battle a long while back that had made it impossible for her to fight or even travel much again. Due to this, she'd taken over as head of the school, and one who the children almost never saw unless they had done something against the rules, such as fighting.

She must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing she knew, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and a voice attached to it that was murmuring, "Korani. Wake up."

Groaning again, she did so, and found herself face to face with a strange woman.

"Do you know who I am?"

"No."

"I am the Shang Whale."

"Oh." That was all she could get out.

"Do you want to explain why we found Rito Jemensra in your room with a broken nose just when you managed to 'fall down'?"

Rani managed to shake her head. "No'm."

"Of course you don't." The Whale sighed. "Korani, you know that fighting is a very serious offense, when among your own classmates.

"Yes'm."

"Hmm. No rides in your free time for two weeks."

Rani forced herself not to make a face. On the rare occasions when she and her friends were not practicing fighting and she had nothing else to do, she liked to ride Ransom. Still, there were worse punishments that could have been dealt out to her.

"Yes'm."

The Whale shook her head, standing. "Get your rest, Korani."

"Yes' m." She closed her eyes.

"Rani?" There was no response; the seven year old was already asleep. The Whale sighed, murmuring, "Keep practicing. Next time you fall down, make sure you bring him with you."

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**A/N:** I was thinking, I'd really liked to develop either Lana or Toni a lot more. Which one do you like better/think is a more interesting character? Let me know :)


	10. The Best Gift

As always, thanks to everyone for the reviews! You guys rock!

I think I'm going to start just replying individually to people who ask questions, etc, as it takes a while to reply to everyone every time.

**MaineTamoraPierceLover88: **Yeah, eventually she'll probably beat him, 'cause if she never does it'll just be too frustrating :) I'm not sure how long that will take, though.

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_"This isn't the same as other lives, Rani. As a student of the Shang, you grow up fast. You have to, to survive in that world. Just promise me, if you get chosen, try to stay a child for as long as possible. Don't grow up too fast."_

_--Liam Ironarm, The Shang Dragon, to four year old Korani Liasri_

***

The girl slowly turned the smooth rock over and over in her fingers. It was small and thin, flattened by the endless flow of water of the stream that Rani had found it in the day before.

She held it between the first two fingers of her right hand, considering the infinite pool of intelligence that Liam had always seemed to have. No, intelligence wasn't quite the right word. Wisdom. That was what he'd had, wisdom. All sorts of things, he seemed to know. As she'd grown up, he'd always just tell her something that she should know, either about being a Shang or about life in general.

At this particular time, she was thinking about one of the first things that she could remember Liam telling her. It seemed right, on this day. But as felt around at the empty spot where her tooth should have been, she couldn't help but wonder, how was she supposed to not grow up too fast in a place like this?

Yawning, she plopped back onto her side on the bed. She was entirely dressed and ready, and she had a few more minutes before she usually met her friends to go to breakfast. She would have fallen asleep, too, had it not been for the knock on the door. "Rani! Open up!" she heard Lana's relatively soft voice calling out.

Rani groaned, reminding herself to murder her friends as she rolled to her feet to open her door. Needless to say, she was surprised to see not only Lana but Toni, Ramsey, and Isai standing in the hall as well.

"Happy birthday, Rani!" they said as one, all grinning broadly. Her jaw dropped as they all placed a box into her arms and pranced into her room.

"Guys – what – how?" she stuttered out.

"Toni found out," Ramsey answered Rani's unspoken question.

"Of course," she said weakly, pushing her door closed with her shoulder. Wandering to her bed, she sat, plopping her presents down next to her. She didn't bother asking how Toni had found out. The half-Yamani girl found out about everything, somehow.

"Well?" said Toni after a moment.

"Well, what?" asked Rani.

"Well… open your presents!" said Isai. The others chimed in their agreement expectantly and excitedly.

She bit her lip, picking up a random box, which happened to be from Isai. After taking a moment to get the package open, she reached in and pulled out the present. As she looked at it, Rani had to try hard to make sure that her mouth didn't fall open again.

"Isai..." she breathed, staring at the bracelet, "it's gorgeous." The bracelet was silver with a single charm hanging off of it. On closer examination, it was easy to see that the charm was a silver hummingbird with small, flawless rubies inset as eyes. "Thank you," she added, glancing up at him after she got the jewelry onto her wrist.

Isai started to say, "You're welcome," but he was interrupted but a squealing Rani giving him a sudden hug. He grinning as she thought, Goddess, this must have cost a fortune.

"Open mine next," said Ramsey, handing a box to her as she sat back on her bed. Inside, she discovered silver necklace that matched her bracelet. Dangling from it was a flower made of solid ruby, with a small, honey-yellow center of what appeared to be topaz.

"Goddess," Rani murmured, holding it between her fingers. "Ramsey, I love it." She attempted to put it on around her neck, but couldn't quite get the catch to hold.

"Here, let me help," he said, beaming. She nodded, turning her back and holding up her hair so that he could clip it on.

"Thanks," she said, hugging him as well before picking up the next gift.

"Oh, that's from me!" exclaimed Lana, then explained, "There's no note. Sorry."

"It's fine." Grinning, she opened it, and marveled at the two silver hair clips that lay within. Lana, Isai, and Ramsey had clearly all gone shopping together; the clips matched perfectly with the bracelet and necklace. They were clearly expensive, with similar designs but that one had a topaz sun and the other a ruby moon.

"Thank you, Lana," said Rani, deciding to slip the topaz clip into her hair. She jumped onto her friend, embracing her happily as she thought,_ I never realized how my friends are, well, rich._

Falling back onto her bed, she took a hold of the final gift. "It's not—" started Toni, and Rani and the others turned to face her. The girl had sunk down a little in the chair that she was sitting in. Toni was so often quiet that Rani had barely noticed, but now she saw that her friend was hiding. "It's not as good as the others," Toni finished quietly.

Rani smiled at her friend. "Toni, I'm sure I'll love it," she said honestly. Out of all her friends, Toni was probably the one who knew her the best. The jewelry was spectacular, and Rani loved it, but the truth was, it wasn't entirely personal. And she didn't mind, she didn't, she knew that a lot of thought had gone into it, and she adored the bracelet and necklace and clips, but Toni knew her better than the other three did. Whatever her friend had gotten her, she knew that she would love it even more than her other gifts.

She opened the present and pulled out a small red-and-gold colored waving cat. Rani couldn't help but smile even more broadly at that. Toni had been raised in along the River Drell, just outside of Galla, her father's birthplace, but her mother was Yamani, and they visited the Islands every so often. That, Toni had explained when the others had asked, was why she looked part Yamani, and was often seemingly slightly less expressionless than other people, but she still showed emotion and wasn't quite as trained in the way of fighting as most Yamani girls and women were. When Rani had seen her little cats and asked about them, Toni had told her that they were lucky Yamani cats, and she picked up one or two every time she went to visit the Yamani islands. The one that Rani now held in her hands was the one that she had always loved the most.

_I never realized how my friends are rich, except for sweet Toni._

"Toni, it's perfect," she said looking into her friend's eyes. It cost a lot less than the others, but to Rani, it was the most precious. Hoping that Toni believed her, Rani strode to her and gave her the biggest hug yet.

Rubbing the cat between her fingers, Rani glanced around and said, "Thank you. All of you. I love everything." As her stomach grumbled, she smiled and said, "Breakfast for the birthday girl?" Fortunately, she was wearing a red dress, so all of her accessories actually looked pretty good, not too silly.

Toni, Lana, Isai, and Ramsey chimed in their agreement, and the five friends headed down to breakfast, talking and giggling and having a wonderful time.

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**A/N:** Okay… I really had no idea where to end that chapter. Sorry :D

So, clearly, I have decided to expand upon Toni. Don't worry, she won't just be sleepy! I was wondering, as sometimes the readers catch these things more easily than the writer – did I describe Toni as anything other than Yamani anywhere? I don't think I did, but she wasn't originally half-Yamani, so I'm not positive.

Review, please! Thank you


	11. Picking up the Pieces

Thanks for reviews, everyone! I hope you all keep liking the story.

**shadowleaf264:** Is this the kind of training you want? I don't want to put in too much, as I don't want people to get bored, and I tend to get bored with too much training stuff :)

**waterdemon9:** Do you mean against each other because of training or because they're angry at each other? Maybe the former, I'm not sure.

**Pro Shoe Tiers:** Well, this would be, in the timeline, too early for her to meet Daine and Kel, but maybe Alanna or the others from the Song of the Lioness. I've been thinking about it, but it will be a little while before I do.

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"High punch! High block! Middle punch! Middle block! Low punch! Low block!"

The students obeyed, their hands and arms moving in rhythm. They'd been getting a lot better at fighting, which meant that usually those who were blocking were good enough to keep the hitters from punching them. If they didn't block properly, well, their punishment was a smack in the face, chest, or stomach from the other person.

Rani was currently blocking against a five year old. A full blooded Yamani, the boy was one of the strongest fighters, and it took all of her concentration to make sure she didn't get a black eye or the wind knocked out of her. After two months of fighting in class and out of it, Rani was a lot better at fighting, but her muscles still ached after an hour of dagger work and forty five minutes of bare hands fighting.

_Fifteen more minutes, twenty at most,_ she thought to herself, not positive of the time but sure it had been at least forty minutes. She could tell from the amount of times that she had switchedfrom blacking to punching; they tended to switch sides every five minutes or so, and partners after two or three side switches – that is, each person would block or punch at least once, and then they would switch partners. It was just Rani's luck that she would get her hardest partner of the day near the end.

"Switch partners!" shouted out their new fighting master, the Shang Wildcat. The woman had light brown hair, with the very beginnings of grey beginning to grow through. She was kind, much more likeable than the Shang Eagle, but still strict and a very good professor. Most of the students were agreed that they hoped she stayed for a good, long time.

The students "rotated", which basically meant that the line that Rani was in moved one partner to the right. She was across from Ptara, a seven year old Scanran girl who was about equal in skills to Rani, maybe a little weaker. She was nice enough, but they were in different circles of friends. With Rani punching this time, they tiredly went through the motions as the Wildcat shouted them out: "High punch! High block! Middle punch! Middle block! Low punch! Low block!"

After five minutes or so of that, she said, "Alright, switch sides! Left line, punch! Right line, block! I figure you've been doing this long enough so I don't have to shout out what to do, so I want you to do this by yourself! I better see those hands moving at the same time! Alright, go!"

Sighing at each other, Ptara and Rani got back to fighting, trying to keep with the same rhythm as everyone else in the lines.

***

Trudging back to the stables and then up to the school when they were done riding seemed like extra hard work on this particular day, and though Rani knew that it was because of the extra fighting practice that she and her friends did, it wasn't as though they were going to stop anytime soon. As usual, the five of them gathered in Rani's room, practicing whatever they had gone through that day.

When Rani declared that they were done for the day, the friends, covered in bruises (less than they had had in the beginning, but the severity was worse, making it about equal) and aching all over, headed to the dining hall, where they greedily consumed chicken, bread, and fruit in the nearly empty room.

"You know," said Isai, not for the first time, "the fact that we're here last shows how crazy we really are."

"Crazy is good," huffed Lana as usual. Of all of them, she was probably still the strongest. Well, Ramsey might be a little stronger, but Lana had more of a drive for it than him, which made her seem better than him even if she really wasn't.

"Agreed," chimed in Toni, taking a bite of chicken. Once the meekest in their group, the one who had taken all of the work the hardest, she had become surprisingly strong, and all three girls sometimes met in Rani's room after lights out to do a little more fighting before going to sleep.

"I'm with Isai," said Ramsey, shrugging, "as usual." The boys did not meet with the girls. The girls could get away with being in each other's rooms after they were supposed to go to bed, but Ramsey and Isai could get in a lot of trouble; boys weren't supposed to be on the girls' floor after a certain time. Not that they really wanted to, anyway; they hadn't developed quite as much of an immunity to tiredness as the girls had, and Isai especially still enjoyed sleeping.

Swallowing her last piece of bread, Rani yawned and said, "I'm going back up to my room soon. You guys with me?"

"You know it," agreed Toni, taking her last sip of water.

"I'm done, too," concurred Lana. Saying goodnight to the boys, they headed back upstairs – and greeted a catastrophe.

"Oh, no," mumbled Rani, eyes wide as she peered around her ruined room. Everything was torn up into shreds and thrown across the floor. The three girls stared for a moment before wandering in.

"Mithros," breathed Toni, mouth wide open.

"What happened?" said Lana. "Who got in here?"

Rani simply shook her head, forcing herself not to cry as she took in the damage. Books were ripped up. Her pillow looked as though it had been stabbed. The small painting that had been done of her mother was in shreds. And – oh, Goddess. Her birthday presents from Lana, Isai, and Ramsey had been stolen, and the Yamani cat from Toni was smashed on the ground.

Tears beginning to fall down her face, the girl fell to her knees beside the cat, picking up the pieces in her hand.

"You can have another one," murmured Toni, sitting beside her, but Rani shook her head in response. It wasn't that she had lost a possession, but that it was from her best friend. Oh, not that a new one wouldn't be from Toni, too, of course, but it would be different, somehow.

"Who did it?" asked Lana again, boiling. "How did they get in?"

Rani shrugged. "I must've left the door open," she whispered. "Everyone knows we go to dinner late, and whoever this was must've just been waiting for a day when I forgot to lock my room. Oh, Goddess…" She put her face in her hands, crying again. The broken Yamani cat. The jewelery. The picture of her mother, a present from her Ma for her birthday this year, the one thing Rani had to really remind her of home.

Lana blew out. "I'm checking my room." She paced out.

Swallowing, Rani looked around and spotted something on her bed. Standing and walking to it, she discovered that it was the note that her mother had sent with the birthday present. Someone had circled the "Liasri" in the address and scrawled, "You'll pay for what you did, bastard child."

Rani fell onto the bed, crumpling the note into a ball. Coming over, Toni took it, glancing at what had been written on it.

"What does that mean?" she asked, confused. "Why did he circle your name?"

Rani shook her head. "'Sri,'" she explained. "'Liasri.' Lia's daughter." She shook her head. "It – Tonia, only bastards are named for their mothers. People who don't know who their fathers."

"Oh." Toni sat beside her friend, taking her head into her lap. "Who would care?"

"A lot of people, unfortunately, but not a lot of people here."

Toni seemed to consider something for a moment before saying, "Rani?"

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you know who your father is?"

Sitting, Rani rubbed her bloodshot eyes, staring at her friend. Finally, she said, "Tonia?"

"Mmmhmm?"

"Do you promise not to tell?"

"Of course." Confused and curious, Toni blinked at Rani, wondering what was wrong.

"I – I don't know my father because – because my mother never knew him either." She swallowed. She had never told anyone this before. "Ton, my village was raided by bandits nine years ago. I am the child of one of those bandits. A child of rape," she spat out.

"Rani, I –" Toni started, but at that moment Lana strode back into the room, announcing,

'"Mine is fine, and I checked, yours is locked, too, Toni." She glanced around at the mess again. "Rani, I'm so sorry this had to happen to you. I still can't believe anyone could do this."

"I can," said Rani, to the confusion of the others. "I know who did it."

"Who?" said Toni after a moment, when Rani didn't continue.

"Rito," she said softly. "Rito did it. He hates me because I broke his nose and humiliated him. And, his last name is Jemensra – 'sra' is for when someone is named for their father – so he would know what the 'sri' meant."

"What are you going to do?" asked Lana.

"I am going to pound him to bits," said Rani shakily. "I'll teach him to call me a bastard child." She sighed. "But first, I'm going to clean up. You guys go to bed."

"Nuh uh," said Toni, shaking her head, "I'm helping," and Lana murmured her agreement.

Smiling a little, Rani said, "Thanks, guys." She hugged them both before saying, "Let's start, yeah?"

She knelt and reached out for the Yamani cat. She picked up the small pieces, careful not to hurt herself on the sharp edges. The face, at least, was whole. _Maybe,_ she thought, _maybe some other things are, too._

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Thoughts? Criticism? Anything? Reviews would be mucho lovely! Thanks!


	12. Not Again!

**Review-y type responses…**

As always thanks to everyone! Reviews are awesome!

**waterdemon9 **and **Emily:** Don't worry! It'll happen eventually! Maybe next time? But for now, as someone who has been at the school for five years longer than Rani, as well as being a LOT larger than her, it makes sense that he would be able to beat her up still.

**Take Your Bow: **She was seven when the story started. She turned eight on her birthday a couple of chapters ago.

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He always managed to come up on her when she was alone.

Well, okay, it wasn't as though it were coincidence, most likely. She was sure that he waited until her friends were gone, and hoped that she would leave the door open. Usually, she or one of her friends closed both when they were in there and after they were done for the night; the fact that she had left it open after they left this time sowed that she was getting sloppy. Great.

"Really, Rito? Is this necessary?" She stared at him, hands on her hips, scowling.

"Yes'm," he said, mocking her speech and accent. Born and raised in Corus, he had what was considered a slightly more "distinguished" accent than hers, and he knew it. "Or should I say, 'Yes, bastard child.'" He spat the last two words out in disgust and hate.

She swallowed. She was expecting that, eventually, and she had told herself that she would not overreact. "_Ooh_," she said calmly. "I've never heard that one before." The words under her sarcasm were true; the first insult that everybody who knew what her last name reached for was to ridicule the fact that she did not know her father, and that made her much more composed.

"I'm sure your mother spread her legs for any passing man, huh?" he sneered, approaching her.

She stood her ground. "I've no siblings. Somehow it's unlikely." She forced herself to think of this as not personal. This could be _anybody's _mother. To keep herself from doing anything rash, she had to pretend that that was true.

He stopped, clearly trying to think of something and failing. She smiled. There was no good comeback to something that wasn't actually mean, at least not something that was readily accessible in his mind.

Feeling a little bit of out of place nastiness in her, she said, "Now, I've heard you've got six siblings. It seems more possible that your mother – "

She could finish what she was saying due to the sudden fist coming at her face. "Get your mouth off of my mother!" Rito growled. As he did so, she could practically hear her nose break with a loud snapping sound that would have been very satisfying had it come from his face instead of hers.

"Do you really want your nose broken again?" slurred Rani, trying to keep the blood pouring out of her nose from getting into her mouth.

He dropped to his knees, straddling her as he had during their previous fight. His hand came at her face, and this time she blocked it. She jabbed out at him, but he stopped her punch, too.

Groaning, she let him get a light hit in on her face so he would be distracted enough for her to punch him in the stomach. He gasped for air when she did so, but his stomach was strong enough that she hadn't winded him entirely. Because of this, she still wasn't able to push him off of her, try as she might.

The boy grabbed her face; she put her small arm up and he latched onto that instead. Eyes gleaming with a strange, creepy sort of excitement, he bent her arm back, snapping her elbow in entirely the wrong direction.

Rani couldn't help it; she _shrieked_.

Half the hall must have heard her, if not more. The two of them both realized that at the same time, due to the sudden loud sound of feet coming out of bed and doors slamming open. Rito snarled at her before leaping to his feet and running to the door, but only after Toni appeared in the hallway.

Toni gasped as she comprehended the scene in front of her. So horrified was she that she did not step aside to left Rito run past her. Not caring what he did to the Yamani girl, he pushed her aside, banging her head into the wall in the process.

As previously yawning, suddenly awake students poured to and into the room, they began to call for teachers, seeing the bloody Rani with her arm twisted behind her head in an impossible manner, and Toni, barely conscious, lying on the ground, gasping for air.

--------------

**A/N:** I had more to this chapter – the after-the-fight part – but as I don't have a laptop in school and worked on it during social studies, I have only written it, not typed it. Considering study hall is about to end and I have to go to science in five minutes or so (ew) I decided just to put this up and type the rest later. Hopefully when I get home, but I have to stay after for the dress for the pops concert I'm working on, so I'm not sure.

Now, after that ramble…

Does anyone know what Bazhir tribe gave Liam the name "Ironarm"? It won't matter for ages, but eventually I'm putting it in my story, and I don't feel like finding it :)


	13. Ewan

Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad you all hate Rito, though I guess you'd have to be a horrible person otherwise.

**Palace-of-Nightmares:** Haha, I write so much during school.

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_I am getting used to this place,_ Rani mused as she woke. This time, she was only confused for a second before figuring out where she was. _Well, hopefully I won't get_ too _used to it._

Yawning, Rani turned her head to her side and saw that someone was in the next bed over. She tried to prop herself up on her elbow to see who it was, but that only resulted in a sharp pain from her arm and a quick yelp from her throat.

She gasped, falling back onto her bed, black dots blinking on and off from the pain. The girl slammed her eyes shut; when she opened them again a moment later, there was a man next to her, the same one who had talked to her the previous time around.

"Hi," she mumbled, feeling around in her body. Mostly, she was okay. It seemed as though her elbow had been put back into place, but not completely healed – the Shang let healers fix the students injuries' with magic only when it was absolutely necessary.

"How are you feeling?" asked the man.

Rani glared at him, remembering the last time that he had asked her a similar question. "How do you think I'm feeling?" Yawning again, she reached up with her good arm to feel her nose, which had been pushed back into place but still hurt quite a lot.

"Touché," he chuckled. Rani smiled, too. Whoever this man was, he seemed nice. "I assume you fell down?" he added.

"Yessir."

"Of course." He stood. "The Shang Whale will be in to see you soon. You know the drill."

"Yessir." She smiled as he walked away.

This time, as she tried to peer into the bed next to her, she pushed herself up using her other arm, her good arm. Seeing the other person, she fell back, eyes wide. Toni! Why was Toni here, head in bandages, eyes closed, looking half dead?

"Wait!" she called out. Hearing her, the man turned and strode back towards her, questions in him blue eyes.

"Yes?"

"Sir – "

He shook his head, cutting her off. "Please stop calling me sir. It makes me feel old."

"Sorry, s – sorry," she amended, sighing. She had been brought up on "sir"s and "ma'am"s, and they were as much habit as they were politeness at this point. Meanwhile, she considered him; now that he'd mentioned it, she realized how young he was. She placed him in his young twenties, no older than maybe 23. Whoever he was, he was definitely not old.

"Um, my friend Deltonia, is she okay?" She glanced to the bed next to her so he would know who she was talking about.

Without even needing to look at Tonia, the man said, "She'll be fine. She banged her head pretty hard, and she needs her rest, but we fixed her up fine, so besides a few aches for a while after she wakes up, she'll be as good as new.

Rani smiled. "Okay. Thank you."

"You're welcome, darling. It was the "darling" of someone who called everyone darling or sweetheart or love, nothing personal to Rani. He had taken only a few steps away before the girl called him back again, saying,

"Sir?"

He twisted his head over his should, and the rest of his thin body followed quickly. "What did I say about that?"

"Well, what else am I supposed to call you?" she pointed out.

The man smiled. "Ewan," he said simply.

"Not by your Shang name?" she was confused. Nearly all of the adults here introduced themselves by their Shang names; sometimes she didn't know their real names for ages, if ever.

He shook his head. "I'm not a Shang, sweetheart."

She narrowed her eyes at him. Everyone here was Shang. Suddenly, though, she caught on. "You're a healer!" she realized.

Those blue eyes laughed along with the rest of him. "They do need a couple of us, with all of the trouble you kids get into. They don't like it, and the pain in your elbow shows they won't let us fix you completely, but the Whale in particular would rather not have you crippled or always in pain when something can be done about it. Your arm will be in a Sling for a while, and your nose will feel odd, but it'll be a lot better than it would have been otherwise.

Rani winced, remembering what she had felt when her arm had snapped. "Fortunately," she mumbled, shuddering.

He grimaced back at her. "Yes," he agreed, clearly considering the pain he must have been in.

"Well, thanks for making it better."

Ewan nodded, glad to have done his job. Flipping some of his blonde hair out of his eyes (it occurred to her, with that hair and those eyes, that he was probably Scanran) he smiled at Rani and walked off. This time, she didn't make him come back.

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**A/N:** Hmm. Ewan. I want to make him important in some way. When Rani gets older, somewhere around 18, I might make it a romance – kind of the thing where she sort of likes him when she's little, and it becomes moreso as she grows up. The age difference wouldn't be that big; as he's 20 or 21 now, it wouldn't be any bigger than Daine and Numair. Anyway, let me know what you think about Ewan and everything else. Thanks!


	14. Overcoming

**A/N:** Sorry for any typos. The computer I'm on doesn't have spell checker, for some reason, and I don't feel like double checking my work :)

By the way. Hannah, in this case, is pronounced "hah-nuh", not "hann-uh".

Everyone – thanks for the reviews, as always!

As most people seem to think it's a good idea, I'm leaning towards a romance. Eventually.

**RandomTamTamLover:** A while, probably.

**Emily:** Hope it was in a good way :) Anyway, you are right – not sure where I read Bazhir – maybe I made it up – it was actually bards making up the name for him. I am silly on occasion.

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_"There are some things, and some people, that you cannot beat, Rani. Maybe someday you will overcome them, but you'll have to work hard, long hours that will tire your body and spirit. And when you overcome someone, there will be something else that insists on holding you back. Remember that. Remember that you are not invincible, and that a sword can pierce even a dragon, if the wielder knows her soft spots."_

_--Liam Ironarm, the Shang Dragon, to six year old Korani Liasri_

***

She had learned to do everything with her left hand by now; the terrible ache that still persevered in her right arm made it impossible to do anything with it. It had been two months since her last big fight with Rito (there had been others in between, but nothing she needed to go to the infirmary for), and the pain in her arm was finally starting to let of. _This is a good thing_, she kept telling herself. _I'm learning to do everything with my weak arm. I'll be able to use both._ She still hated it, though.

Gingerly, for the first time in a while, she switched her sword to her right hand.

They had only recently started moving on to weapons other than daggers, but already the students were expected to be improving greatly with their swords. The practice weapons that they used were smaller and lighter than real ones; even the Shang didn't expect young children to be capable of wielding heavy swords that were as tall as themselves. In their third year or so, they moved on to real swords, but that was a long time coming.

She winced, but didn't drop the weapon. _I can do this,_ she told herself. _I can use my right arm. I will fight through the pain._ She dropped it, though, unable to keep it in the air.

Rani sighed, then lifted her weapon in her left arm. That, at least, was manageable.

***

"9,823."

"That's incorrect. Would someone else like to try?"

Rani hid a smile, and she could see both Toni and Ramsey, on either side of her, do the same thing. They knew they shouldn't, but they all enjoyed when Kithra got something wrong. She was so obnoxious about everything that it was hard not to be a little mean about it.

"Rani?" the Hare said, seeing the girl's raised hand.

"8,869?"

"Very good, Rani."

Oh, good. It would have been embarrassing, had she gotten that wrong.

The bell rang, signaling the end of class. As the students scrambled to their feet, the Hare called out, "Rani? Will you come here for a moment?"

Shrugging at her friends, who said they refused to leave without her and would wait for her before going to her room to study, the girl strode to her teacher.

"Yes?"

"Rani, this class is too easy for you." It was a statement, not in any way a question.

"Um, maybe a little, Hannah." The Hare preferred that the students call her by her first name.

"I would like to have you skip ahead of your class, when you come back after vacation this year." The students got a month off to visit their families during the summer, after which they moved up a year; at that point, Rani would officially be a second year student of the Shang.

Eyes wide, she said, "Hannah, I – I would prefer not to, if that's alright."

"Why is that?"

Rani shrugged. "I'd rather stay with my friends. Next year isn't as easy, right? I'll be a lot more comfortable with people I know, learning at the same rate as them."

Hannah ducked her head in acknowledgement. "If that is the case, then you can stay with your friends. However, I would prefer that you at least take on some of the harder material, so I can see if you can learn it quickly."

The girl nodded, recognizing that Hannah was certainly not obliged to even let Rani take the easier class. "That sounds fine."

"Alright. Go join your friends."

Smiling, Rani strode outside of the room, sure that her friends would be eagerly awaiting, wondering what the Hare had wanted.

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Review review review! Gracias. :)


	15. Home

A/N: Ahh! Let me apologize at once for not putting this up sooner! I've had a lot going on lately – finals, voice rehearsals and recital, etc, etc. Hopefully the next chapter will go up much more quickly than this.

Reviews:

Waterdemon9: Yeah, she'll have both, but as'll be explained later, she doesn't really want people to know she has both sets of work – she doesn't want to be "that girl" who everyone thinks is really arrogant about how smart she is.

Emily: Sorry! I wanted to put up a short chapter rather than not get one up at all… and aren't you glad it went up when it did rather than going up now? :)

Everlookingforsparks-Nat: It's okay. Glad you like! I'm not sure how I'm going to do the time; I'll just see what I want to do as I go.

Soraya the All Speaker: Thanks. Nah, I'm not trying to follow Alanna or Kel at all, though there may be some similarities that are not purposeful.

And to the story!

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"Mama!"

Rani cried out gleefully, running into her mother's waiting arms. Lia laughed in turn, embracing her daughter tightly.

Just as when she had left, Rani had been escorted back home by a Shang Master, who would return in a month to take her and the others from her village back to the school. The philosophy of the Shang was that, although the children carried their weapons home with them, they might not be able to defend themselves on the way home, if danger arose. None did, though, and the students and Shang master had made a peaceful trip.

Like many other parents, Lia had been waiting for her child in the village center. Now, she asked her, "Oh, how are you, my darling?"

"I'm fine, Ma." She smiled into Lia's eyes.

Rubbing a bit of dirt off of Rani's face, Lia said, "Alright, let's go home."

Smiling, the girl nodded her agreement, but not before hugging her mother tightly once more.

***

Butterfly yapped happily as Rani approached the house. He pranced over to her and immediately rubbed his head against her leg. Laughing, the child said, "Come on, Butterfly," but pet him all the same. The dog licked her hand as she attempted to pat his head, making her giggle again. "Oh, I've missed you, Fly," she said, grinning still.

It was a show of how much she had worked and how much she had learned that Rani didn't feel the need to sit as soon as she entered her house, as she had many times on her original journey, to the Shang school. Last time, she had been exhausted. This time, the small group had taken only one short break to have some food and water before continuing on again; they hadn't even stopped to sleep for the night. While Rani felt the walk (and occasional run, as they had done that, too, on the journey home) in her body, as nearly anybody would, she felt okay; she could have continued walking and been fine.

She didn't notice any of this, of course, with how used to working out she was. Her mother did, though, and said, "Don't you want water or food, or at least want to sit for a bit, Korani?"

The girl paused for moment, thinking, before shrugging and replying, "No, I'm fine. I've worked harder than this before. We didn't have to fight. Walking is easy." She sighed and continued, "I wish I could've brought Ransom home, though. I know they'll take good care of him there, and he'll get fed and groomed and exercised, but I wish we had a place to keep him like some of the other students do."

"How long did it take to get here from school?"

A little confused by the question, Rani said, "A day and a half, I s'pose."

"Really? Your letter to me at the beginning of the year said it took you almost four days last time."

The girl shrugged. "Well, I'm faster now, and I didn't have to stop to sleep or rest." The last time, she'd stayed with one Shang Master, going slowly, while the older students had moved much more quickly.

Lia smiled. "I don't love the idea of you going alone, but I don't mind if you visit him once in a while, if Selah, Ramona, or Damon go with you." She named the three other students of the Shang who lived in their village.

Rani's eyes widened. "Really?" She got along with all three of them, and was pretty friendly with Selah. Ramona had brought her horse with her, but both Selah and Damon would probably be happy to have an excuse to visit their school horses. She knew that they had both gone to the school often the previous summer, to visit their horses and to practice with the others who travelled back and forth.

"Really." Lia faced her daughter. Placing a hand on one of Rani's red cheeks, she said, "Perhaps you could wait a short while, though?"

"Of course, Ma!" Her eyes twinkled. "I want to spend time with you before I leave anytime soon."

"You haven't a choice in that, my darling."

"I don't need one, Ma."

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Ending is a little weird, sorry. Didn't know where to end this.

Again, sorry this took so long to get up! Review, please!


	16. Summer

Oh dear, it seems to be becoming a pattern that it's taking so long to put up new chapters. I'm sorry – I've had a busy summer! Hopefully it'll be less time before the next chapter.

**Emily: **Of course I sent her home! I agree, that would be mean :)

**Pro Shoe Tiers:** I'm glad you like her mom! She's one of my favorite characters.

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"You coming, Rani?"

"Mmm." She yawned, standing. Butterfly whined quietly, wanted the girl to continue petting him. Rani leaned down to give him one last pat on the head before leaving the house to join Selah, who was standing there waiting for her.

"Bye, Ma!" she called out over her shoulder. At the sound of her voice, Lia rushed out from her bedroom and said,

"You'll be back in three days?"

"Yes, Ma." Smiling, the girl waited as her mother walked to her and gave her a hug. "I'll be back soon."

"Alright. Have fun. Thanks for going with her, Selah."

"Of course, Lia."

"Give my best to Damon."

"Bye, Ma."

Mother and daughter smiled at each other for a moment before Rani turned to go, Selah at her side. They met up with Damon at his house, and the three of them took off for the Shang school.

They had made a regular date of this – they went to the school for three days, came home for three days, and then left again. It turned out that Selah and Damon could make the trip in even less time than the students had made home as a group. Well, that made sense. If Rani could go from four days to less than two in a years' worth of training, surely all of the students would be able to shave off even more time as their training went on.

The girl wasn't quite able to make it in half a day like Selah and Damon could, but she could make it in eighteen or twenty hours, and the others didn't mind slowing down a little. They chatted while they were walking and generally stopped once on the way and once on the journey home.

They made the trip in good time now, and were awake enough when they got to the school that they went to go see the horses before carrying their small bags up to their rooms. Ransom was as happy as he always was to se Rani; the same could be said of the other two horses when they saw Selah and Damon. She slipped her horse a carrot, which he munched on happily, before she joined the other two to jog to the school building.

_I miss him while I'm home, _she thought absently, as she'd done before, _but at least they can keep him here and feed him even though he's "mine"._ _We'd have nowhere to put him._ And again, she sent out a silent prayer: _Thank you, Liam, for not only giving him to me but paying for his well being as well, for all this time._

Before she knew it, they were at their second home again. As they strode to their dorms, they smiled and waved at many greatly missed friends and teachers. Finally, they parted, going to their separate floors.

Rani smiled as she reached her room and collapsed on her bed. The students were always allowed to stay at the school, in their rooms, if they wished, and they would be fed while they were there as well. After all, the Shang Masters understood the urge to see friends and horses alike; they, too, had once been students who loved going home but wanted to come back to the school, too.

She was asleep in an instant, before she even changed out of her travelling clothes.

***

"Rani!"

The girl woke to a familiar loud cry at her door. She struggled to stand, but suddenly a body jumped next to her on her bed.

"You're back!"

"Clearly," she laughed, moving to hug her friend. "How did you know I was here, Toni?"

The other girl giggled back, "Your door was open a little." She would have gone on, but suddenly Rani's stomach gave out a loud grumble.

Neither of them could help laughing again. When they stopped (or at least started to stop), Toni suggested that they talk while they were eating breakfast.

"Good plan," Rani agreed, eyes bright. She wanted to go see Ransom right away, but she could wait until after she ate. "To breakfast?"

"To breakfast indeed;" and off they went.


	17. Gone in a Moment

**Waterdemon9:** You read my mind. Read on. :D

**Pro Shoe Tiers:** A family of seven? Wow. At least I've only got three others in mine, and my sister is at college and my dad has his own laptop. I only have to share the computer with my mum. And it's okay, I tend to ramble, too.

**Liza: **I'm ignoring you. We can all assume that no one else is thorough enough to find that one page with the name of Liam's horse. Maybe he has two horses. Blah. It seems silly to change it now.

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_"There is a lot in this life that you will think will feel good in a way, but won't. You'll do it anyway. You have to. I've fought my share of battles, and killed too many men in the process. You can put on a show to the world that it's a glorious life, but it isn't. The first time you kill, you will hate yourself. My darling, I have to warn you -- thirty years later, that feeling will likely still be there, no matter how much you long for it to disappear."  
_

_Liam Ironarm, The Shang Dragon, to five year old Korani Liasri_

***

"Put me down, put me down, put me down!"

Damon laughed and let Rani step down out of his arms. The girl couldn't help but giggle back, grabbing her bag off of the ground and slinging it back over her shoulder. They were heading back to school for good, now. Even though she had just seen Toni, she was looking forward to seeing her again, and of course she had missed her other friends as well. So off they were, all excited as they could be to be returning.

It was Ramona's last year, so she was nervous, too, almost more so than she was excited. Damon and Selah both had two years left, and the other few students had, like Rani, a while to go. But Ramona only had what seemed like so short a while before she went off for her year alone.

There were no new students this year. It seemed like the choosing had been over in a minute. Maybe, Rani mused, it had been last year, too, but it had just seemed like longer because her future was on the line.

She had grown an inch and a half from vacation's start to end, but she was still shorter than everyone else here, and would be at school, too. Rani didn't mind that she hadn't grown more. A lot of girls she knew (and boys for that matter) didn't like being short, but she rather liked it in her way.

Damon and Rani were still chatting when both the Shang Master who was accompanying them and Ramona stopped suddenly. The others did, too, falling silent when they saw what was happening. After a second, Rani heard the quiet rustling of feet in some leaves nearby.

The Shang Master drew his sword, and the students followed suit with the weapons of their choice. Ramona, Selah, and Tylo, a boy who Rani didn't know very well, strung their bows and slipped arrows onto their strings; Rani and Nat, a girl the year above Rani, each pulled out two daggers, one for each hand, and made sure the rest were easily accessible in their leather pouches; and the rest of the students pulled out swords.

Perhaps a moment later, it was all over. A few of the men scurried away from the students, having thoroughly underestimated their ability to fight. Rani swallowed. At least one or two men had daggers embedded in their chests and hearts. Were those hers or Nat's? She didn't know. Had she just killed someone? Gods. She didn't _want_ to know.

"Dame, wake up!" The girl's eyes flicked to the side, and she almost fell. Damon? No. Not Damon.

Selah was crying at his side, shaking him, yelling at him. At least Rani thought she was. Her mouth was moving, but she could hardly hear, as though there were something stuck in her ears. This couldn't be happening, could it?

It was almost a familiar feeling, that of the world disappearing before her eyes. It happened now. She couldn't be surprised.

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Ah well, it had to happen eventually. Next chapter should be up soon, but no promises.


	18. Confused

**Soraya the All Speaker:** Not too much, don't worry.

**Nargil: **Glad you like. Yeah, I wanted to make my own character, not just copy it after one she's already made.

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She was immediately aware of a pain pounding throughout all of her body. For a moment, she didn't open her eyes, not sure if she were still in the woods or somewhere in the Black God's realms. But would she_ hurt _this much if she were dead?

Her hazel eyes flickered open. She was in neither the woods nor the Black God's realms, but at school, in the familiar infirmary. She must have been carried here.

Suddenly the memories of the previous day – or however long it had been – flooded back to her. Rani's eyes misted up, full of tears. She pulled her blanket over herself, crunching herself up into a ball. Damon. No. He couldn't be gone, could he? No, no, no.

"Korani." His voice was softer than usual, concerned rather than joking. She balled up tighter, not wanting to talk to him right now, but he didn't go away. "Korani, I'm so sorry about Damon. I tried to save him, but I was far too late." She heard him sit on a chair next to her bed. "Do you remember what happened?"

As softly as possible, without turning to look at the man, she whispered, "Men. They attacked us." Her voice cracked. "Ewan, it was all so sudden."

"I know. Did you know you got sliced up, too?"

"It was too fast…" What she was replying to, she wasn't sure.

Ewan sighed in sympathy. "Can you eat something?" She mumbled something incomprehensible in response. "Hon, you're pretty banged up. You need to keep your strength up. Can you manage water?"

She was going to shrug, but it made the pain in her shoulders hurt more. Besides which, she was in a bad position to move her shoulders at all. Ewan clearly took that as a yes, for while he neither moved nor spoke, a moment later the girl heard the clack of someone else's shoes. Rani felt the Scanran man's hand on her shoulder, and she made a quiet yelp in pain.

"Shh. Drink this." She didn't want to, but she turned and let him tip the glass into her mouth for the water to tumble down. The girl hated when people saw her crying. Some people looked attractive when they cried; she was not one of them. Her face got redder than it already was and her eyes puffed up. Sniffling, she drank, then gingerly shifted so she was in a more comfortable position.

"Alright. Sleep now."

Despite her pain, she did so.

***

When Rani woke again, she was a little more aware of her situation than she had been earlier. She glanced around and saw Ewan at someone else's bed – she wasn't sure whose. After a moment, he stood and walked about, glancing at the students. She caught his eye, and he strode over, a mix of compassion and his every day joy on his face and in his blue eyes. The man sat next to her bed once more. "You okay to talk now?"

"I guess." She swallowed. It hurt. "What happened to me, exactly?"

He smiled just a little. "Quite a lot, darling. You seem to have gotten grazed and sliced and nearly skewered by arrows and daggers and swords alike, as well as some fists and other weapons. I fixed up your cuts, though there'll be scars."

"Is everyone else – ?"

He nodded. "They're fine. A lot of them are in here, though you were one of the worst."

"How long was I out?"

"A week or so. You almost went into a coma, though. I thought you were in one, when you first got here. You were in real bad shape, more than any of the others in the fight."

She bit her lip. "Damon – "

Ewan looked down, face soft. "I'm sorry."

Rani could feel her tears starting again. "Can I be alone for a while? As alone as I can be here, anyway."

"Of course." He stood, but before he walked away, he placed his hand softly on her shoulder again. "I know he hurts you more than your cuts and bruises. I wish I could heal you. The only advice is not to try to forget him. Everyone tries to. It'll hurt more when he's gone than when you hold him with you. He's not gone until you let him be."

"I know." Of course she knew. "Thank you."

"Sure." They stared at each other until he swiftly turned his head and body and paced off to elsewhere.

Rani closed her eyes and let the tears flow.

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Ahh short again! Hope you like and I'll try to have the next chapter up soon. Suggestions would be wonderful as I'm not sure what to do next.


	19. Trying to Cope

As usual, sorry this took so long to put up. My muse escaped me for a bit.

Don't have time to reply to reviews (sorry). Would rather get the chapter up asap :D

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"I don't think I can go."

"You have to, Seh." Rani sat down on her friend's bed and gingerly placed her hand on her shoulders, which only succeeded in making Selah turn her face away more. "You'll regret it if you don't."

"How can you talk like that?" Her voice was hollow. "Ran, he's gone, don't you get it?"

"Of course I do. That's why I know you need to come."

Selah slowly moved her face towards Rani. "He's always been here. We were chosen the same year. He held my hand the first time our group got into a fight, because he knew I was scared witless. And he pulled out a dagger and he – " The girl's voice cracked. Beginning to cry (hadn't she promised herself she wouldn't cry around Selah?), Rani reached out and took her friend's hand.

It was a moment before Selah began again. "He took my hand and he whispered, 'It's alright, Selie, I got you.' Always my friend, always worrying about me before himself." She choked on her breath. "And he always grabbed my hand after that. Whenever there was a fight. He takes my hand and – " She swallowed, and Rani squeezed her hand harder. "He took my hand whispered 'It's alright, Selie, I got you.' No one else is allowed to call me that. Was allowed to…"

Without a second thought, Rani reached out her arms and hugged the older girl. It hurt her whole body, still bruised from that day, but it was worth it. It was what Selah needed.

"Should we go now, Seh?" she asked after a long moment.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Alright. Come on." Rani took Selah's hand and lead her out of the room.

***

The sun was high in the sky, sometimes shining bright and sometimes hidden by the slow-moving clouds. Seeing their parents, the two girls strode over and could do nothing but hug them.

It had been a week. Two Shang Masters had gone to the village to tell Damon's family that he had been killed. Valiantly, she was sure they had said. It was a good death if there ever was one. Gods.

The other parents had come with Damon's. He was well known back home, always a friend to whoever needed one. Well -- no. Friendly. He'd be kind to everyone, but he only had a few truly close friends.

Even parents who didn't have students who were training to be Shang had come. Some of Damon's friends from home were there. They wanted to see him one last time.

A priest was saying blank words. She ignored him as she leaned against her mother, soft tears falling from both of their eyes.

She could hear Selah crying, and she didn't know what to say to her. Rani had loved Damon, of course, but he and Selah had been best friends seemingly for forever. They knew each other better than Rani knew any of her friends. She didn't know what their true relationship had been, beyond being friends. Maybe that's all it was. They were soulmates, she was sure of it. She just didn't know in what way.

They did everything together, and Selah was grieving, and Rani had no idea how to help.

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I have an idea for what I want to happen next, so hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. It'll go faster after this, timewise, but I felt like I had to write in the funeral.


	20. Lesson

**A/N: **Sorry that it's been forever since I put up a new chapter! Hopefully it'll go more quickly from now on.

* * *

"You did good this time. I don't think he'll be able to see out of that eye for a week. And, well, I'm under strict orders not to heal him unless it won't heal by itself. You're still more pummeled than he is, but not as much as you usually are."

"Who are we talking about?" Rani said innocently.

"Ah. So Rito happened to fall down at the exact same time as you and your friend Toni? In your bedroom, after hours?"

"I suppose so."

"For the third time this month?"

"I believe one time Lana fell down, too."

"Mmm. It's really too bad that he's still stronger than even the three of us together," Evan murmured.

"If I know what you were talking, I'm sure that I would tell you he's scared of Ramsey. He won't come near us if he's around. Ramsey's just as big as Rito is."

"Sexist pig." That made Rani snort in slight amusement. "He ought to know by now that Lana's just as strong as Ramsey, even if she is smaller than him." He glanced at Rani, "Not that you're not – "

But the girl shook her head. "No, it's true. Lana's way stronger than I am, stronger than Toni, too. But not as strong as Rito. Me, though, I'm small. I won't have a fair chance against him until we're somewhere bigger than my room. He knows that as much as I do."

"Not that you've fought him at all, though, right?"

She grinned. "Of course not, Ewan. We're just all very clumsy. We fall down an awful lot."

"How all you awkward people became Shang, I will ever know."

"Very strange," Rani agreed, grinning. She reached out to scratch her nose and winced. "I guess you were right when I said I got pummeled." The girl sighed.

"It could be worse. At least he doesn't gang up on you guys."

"Mmm. I don't know, it's not as though he doesn't want to – bring more people to fall down. People mostly refuse to. He isn't liked. It's not surprising, really. He's arrogant, and, well, mean, for lack of a better word. I suppose he must've put on a different fact for the Shang masters who went to choose him."

"He _wasn't _chosen," Ewan said softly.

"What?"

"He ran here. I – shouldn't be telling you this, maybe you would understand his position if you know. He – Rani, do you promise never to mention this, to him or anyone else?"

"Of course," Rani replied. She glanced to her side, which made her hurt again. "Uh – won't anyone else hear?"

"It's pretty empty around here, actually. I don't think anyone will hear. You're the only one falling down lately." He smiled a little. "Rito's already up and gone and Deltonia's asleep."

"Oh. So, what were you going to say?"

"Well. I was here when Rito first arrived, actually, a few years ago. He was covered in bruises and had clearly been running for a while. His hair and clothes were a mess, both his eyes black. One of his arms was cut up and infected. It wasn't healing very well. He said that he fled from his home to get away from his father. He beat him. His mother pretended it wasn't happening. She couldn't do anything about it. The saddest kind of story. Anyway, he was tired of being beaten. Who wouldn't be? He came here to learn, so one day he could stand up to his father. It's not surprising how he turned out, however horrible it is."

"That's horrid." Rani's voice was hushed. Who would have guessed?

"Yes, it is."

A voice called from a little ways away, "Ewan?"

The man turned and nodded at the other healer. "It's my lunch break," he told Rani, turning back to her. "Will you be okay? I'm pretty hungry, truth be told."

"Sure," Rani responded. "I'll be fine. I think I might try to sleep again."

"I think the Shang whale will be coming by to talk to you, soon."

"Of course. I'll be here."

As Ewan left, the girl close her eyes, but she couldn't manage to fall asleep.

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As always, please review!


	21. Impossible

**crossMyheartHope2Spy: **I'm glad you like the story! I can't see Rani and Rito skipping down the hallways holding hands but I'm trying to steer him away from being just the nasty bully whose only purpose in life is to beat up Rani :) And, yup, I made up the quotes.

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"_Dearest darling. Don't cry about your fate. It's better than some others. Keep in mind that you _are _here, which is more than some people can say. You wouldn't have been if it weren't for – him. And you've had a good life. Count your blessings when you look at your sorrows."_

_--Liam Ironarm, the Shang Dragon, to five year old Korani Liasri when she asked, and her mother Lia explained, why she had no father to speak of_

***

It had been near two months since she'd visited Ewan on account of Rito. That was what he had called it when the two of them had passed in the hall the other day. "Been a while since you've visited me," he chuckled. "Don't like me anymore, Korani?"

"Taken a new stance on Rito," she said softly before adding, grinning, "and if I only like you when I get all beat up, then no, I don't like you any longer. Sorry."

Now, as she pored over her mathematics work, Tonia appeared at her doorway. "I've noticed," she said, plopping down on Rani's bed, "that neither of your eyes are all wonderfully colored like they usually are, and none of your limbs are bent in the wrong directions."

"You're observant," Rani mumbled absentmindedly, going back to rework a problem that she was pretty sure she'd gotten wrong.

"Furthermore, you are actually allowed to ride Ransom in your spare time, which doesn't happen very often."

"I guess not."

"Rani, when exactly did you decide to stop getting in fights with Rito?"

The girl sighed and finally looked up at her friend. "I never _wanted _to get in fights with him, Tonia. I – I guess Ramsey has just been hanging out up here more often. You know Rito won't go near him."

"Uh huh. Am I supposed to believe you?" Toni leaned against the wall next to Rani's bed and crossed her arms over her chest.

Rani considered her friend for a moment before saying, truthfully, "Someday, I promise to tell you. For now, I'm sworn to secrecy."

"You're gonna kill me if I press, aren't you?"

"'Course."

"Well, we're getting food. You coming?"

"Math," Rani sighed, going back to her work. "Grab me something?"

"Sure."

A few minutes later, it was a much larger person at her door. She saw his silhouette and tried to ignore it, willed it to go away. She failed.

"Your nose is lookin' almost straight. Maybe I should fix that." Couldn't he just give up? She hadn't even fought back last time. She'd known Lana had just walked down the hall to her room, would see Rito approaching Rani's. Rito had broken Rani's nose, which would likely never heal completely (though she sort of liked the slight angle part of it was at) and given her a good amount of bruises before Lana had shown up and let out a yell for others to come help. Let him beat on her. She would defend herself, but she was done with trying to hurt him every time he showed up in her room.

"D'you honestly think you're gonna win this time?" Rani stood to face him. "Look, I like being able to ride Ransom. I know very well you aren't pleased when you aren't allowed to ride your horse. You go out there and half-pine over her." She was very capable of throwing an insult in. She did not. "I also like not waking to find something else has been broken. All you gotta do is leave, Rito."

He stared at her for a long moment, almost confused. "What, you think you're going to get me to go away? _You_?"

"Why're you here anyway?" It was something she'd been trying to work out for a while, and, while she figured that he probably was not going to tell her, maybe it was worth a try.

"I – what?"

"Here. Beatin' on me. I knew you don't beat on every kid in the school. Don't try to pick a fight with most of 'em. Why me, Rito?"

He shook his head. "Cause you're swine." Rito approached the eight year old, towering over her as usual. She forced herself to refrain from punching him in the gut. _Liam would tell you to let it go, _she thought fiercely. _He'd say Dragons don't fight needlessly, especially when they know a whole story like this one. _

"Sure I am, then." The girl crossed her arms over her chest. "But when was the last time you took the time to hit a pig?"

Rito was sort of lost now, she could tell. His fists were clenched, but he was still trying to figure out what was going on. Why wasn't she just trying to fight him? Was she trying to… talk?

"I'm tiny, Rito. Don't know if punching my nose to the side is fun, but I can't see how it's helping you. I'm half your size. It'd be a fair fight if it were Ramsey you were attackin', I suppose, but not me. If you – "

She didn't get to finish her sentence. Rito's fist came at her, aimed at her neck. By reflex, her hands went up and grabbed his fist, twisting his arm. Rani let go with one hand to grab his other as it went towards her neck. Breathing hard, she stood her ground. Rito glared her down for one long moment before she pushed hard at him with everything in her. He stumbled backwards.

"Out," Rani half-growled, no longer trying to talk. If he was just going to attack her, fine. Sending a silent apology to her uncle, Rani advanced on the boy, who walked backwards more out of confusion, probably, than thinking she could actually do any real damage to him. Even if she could, he'd probably deny it. "Leave my room. The next time I come up against you, it had best not be here. I ain't gonna turn you in and at least I can say you've enough in you to use the same excuse I do so far as I know, but I'd prefer the next time I have to go to get healed it's not by your hand unless it's an actual challenge. You got me?"

Two pairs of brown eyes, one more hazel and one with a hint of grey, met each other. Rito blinked first. He took a step back so he was out of her room as though he had planned to leave and strode, disgusted, to the stairs at the end of the hall.

Rani blew out. So _much _she had wanted to help. Liam would want her to. So would her mother. Maybe – when they were older. He was all rage now. Maybe he would get that out of his system someday.

The girl closed and locked the door, something she didn't often do. If Rito did come back, she didn't think he would be able to bang down the door.

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**A/N: **Not the greatest chapter but it had to happen before I could move on in the story.


	22. Strength

The time through Rani's ninth birthday passed more or less uneventfully. Rito would try to glare Rani down in the corridors, but he pretty much stayed away from her and her friends. The five of them kept up the fighting study group regardless; they'd grown to like working out and practicing, even Toni and Isai. Really, that wasn't surprising. Both of them had gotten approval from Shang Masters who knew that they would fit in the Shang life. All of them always ached, but they were used to it, and it was better to hurt now than when they went out in the world. Everything they did now, they knew, would be immensely helpful in the future.

Rani sat on her bed now, long after lights out, absentmindedly rubbing her new necklace, a birthday present from Ramsey, with her fingers. Looking at the wall, she lifted her hand up and let the charm fall onto her teeth, a nervous habit she'd acquired when she was younger that had caused her to stop wearing necklaces. With her friend's gift last year she'd managed to keep away from putting it in her mouth, but that had been a lot shorter. She wasn't really able to lift it to her mouth. He had to go and get a longer one for her this year — but of course she wasn't really upset. The necklace was more than a common-born girl like her deserved, but Ramsey and the others wouldn't let her say anything about the fact that she didn't get them anything so nice during their birthdays. She'd known for a while how Toni had felt on her birthday when it was anyone else's, but at least they had each other to feel bad with. As it was, Ramsey and Isai were both related to nobles (though not nobles themselves – the Shang didn't really like nobles and generally turned them away) and Lana had an uncle who was a really impressive healer and sorcerer and sent her and her parents a good amount of money.

As she sat there, she heard a quiet knock at her door, which was almost always locked nowadays. "Who's there?" she hissed as softly as possible, dropping the charm from her mouth.

"Toni. Can I come in?"

Quickly, Rani stood and strode to the door. Opening it, she let in Tonia, who was holding a small leather bag and, like Rani, was in her nightclothes. Locking the door, the smaller girl murmured, "You know you can get in trouble if anyone catches you out of your room, right?"

"Hush," Toni whispered. "No one's going to come'n check on me."

"Why're you here?"

"I don't know. I couldn't sleep."

"_You_?" Rani's hazel-brown eyes grinned.

"Oh, you be quiet," Tonia said, making a face.

Rani couldn't help it. Like Liam had said as she was growing up, if she was accepted into the Shang life, she had to be a kid sometimes. She stuck her tongue out at Toni, grabbed her friend's bag, and, on tip toes so she didn't make any noise, pranced to her desk and stood on it. Toni, attempting to laugh quietly, chased after her friend and tugged her down from the desk. Rani let the part-Yamani girl grab the bag out of her friends and pull her off the desk, and they both fell on the bed, giggling as quietly as possible.

"Eghh, now I won't be able to sleep either," Rani sighed, scrunching up her face in a very silly manner. Tonia took one look at her friend and began to laugh again.

After a few moments, Tonia said, "Anyway, I came in to see if you wanted to work on hand-to-hand, cause you're always big with your daggers and fists and everything I should know better. The Wildcat's been riding me about it, saying I've started depended on my sword too often." Rani knew that Deltonia loved the feel of even her practice sword in her hands, and that she'd jumped at the chance to handle a real sword when one of the Masters said they'd like to see her with it. None of them were allowed to fight with real swords unless outside of the school until their next year, though, and Toni didn't have the money to buy one.

"Of course," said Rani. "It'll be fun practicing like this, though, hmm?" she pointed out, referring to their current attire.

"That is why I brought this," Tonia said, holding up her bag.

"Erm – are you going to wear that, or…"

Toni rolled her eyes towards the Gods and pulled out light breeches and a shirt. "It'll only take me a minute to change." Rani nodded and went to get her own clothes.

As it turned out, Tonia, of course, was understating her own abilities. Rani had been working a lot more on hand-to-hand than Toni had, though she knew if they had swords in hands her friend could flatten her, and she would make sure the two of them worked on swordplay the next night in their group.

The smaller girl loved going through unchoreographed routines, so to say. They spent a lot of time with the Wildcat in a "top, middle, bottom" way, so they often practiced that way together – two groups of two and one person calling out directions, simply so they could improve in class. Rani's favorite, though, was when they went two at a time and the others watched. Of course, no one was watching now, and they were having a good time with themselves.

Despite hand-to-hand being Rani's strength, they weren't too unevenly matched. Eventually, Rani did manage to tumble her friend hand and put her hand to Tonia's throat. Smiling, Rani stood and helped her friend to her feet. "Again?" she asked.

"Please. You'd kill me." Toni wiped sweat off her forehead. "Though I'm still not going to be able to sleep, even more so."

"Just remember, this was _your _idea," Rani said.

"Mmhmm." Tonia considered her friend for a moment before saying, "I can go grab my practice sword if you want."

Another friendly smile. "I am pretty sure you read my mind."

* * *

**A/N: **Yeah, a silly chapter. I will start getting into plot after this, really, but I needed to put in a little about their fighting outside of fighting Rito. As always, please review!


	23. Changes

A/N: Ooh it's been a long time since I put anything up hasn't it? I hope some of you still want to read! I'll try to keep writing, even if it takes a while to put up new chapters. (I actually typed this ages ago and just had to write another paragraph to type – I can't believe I forgot!)

**Tishica**: She turned nine in the last chapter. I haven't quite decided how long it'll be until she goes off – I'm thinking between eight and ten years altogether – but I could change my mind.

* * *

The students all stared at the Shang Whale, many of them wide-eyed, confused, or just plain unwilling to believe her. In turn, the Whale placed her hands on the table in front of her and looked around at everyone, a look of mixed apology and determination on her face.

They'd all known that something was going on when all of the students had been asked to come to supper at the same time. Usually, the students just drifted to dining hall whenever they had the time to eat, so long as food was being served. It was irrational to pile the students with work and then expect them to spend an hour all clamoring for food at the same time. So when all they had all been told to come at the same time, almost everyone had been more than willing to come and satisfy their curiosities.

And now, here the Shang Whale was, announcing that she was leaving the school that she had presided over for so long. Normally there was no big announcement when one of the Masters was leaving, but this was different. The Whale had been the head of the Shang school for over ten years, had changed the school when she'd come and would change it simply by departing. It was, of course, entirely within her right to leave, but even a first-year student would probably be able to see how different it would be when the Whale left.

"I will stay, of course, through the end of this year. The Shang Hawk will arrive near the beginning of your month off, and he will stay when I leave. I cannot promise that he will stay more than two years, but he has agreed to stay for at least that long. Of course, I am certain that he will do a very good job of running the school." A small smile. "I'm sure you all know I wouldn't leave you in the hands of anyone I thought couldn't handle this."

There was a silence in the room. People _liked _the Shang Whale. More than that, she liked the students. She could be strict, of course, but she was kind and fair. With some of the teachers, the students were unsure as to why they bothered teaching. Many Shang never settled down at all, not even for a while. Why professors like the Owl who didn't even seem to like anyone below the age of thirty decided to teach was beyond Rani and her friends. But with the Whale, it wasn't like that. She wasn't even a teacher, really, but she understood the students and wanted to help them become Shang. So how could she just _leave_?

Rani blew out slowly, letting out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. With the Whale around, she and the rest of the students knew that they had someone on their side. Every single one of them, her and Toni and Selah and even Rito, to an extent. Not that they didn't all have professors to encourage them, but that was still different. Whoever this Shang Hawk was, he couldn't replace the Whale. She would try to keep her mind open and all, but it was easier to understand Rito than it would be to accept this Hawk, she was sure.

"At least she's here _now. _I don't entirely like the idea've going out in the middle of nowhere for the first time with anyone other than her with us."

Isai expressed what all five of them were feeling. Soon before the training year was out and the students went home for their month off, the entire group of students in their second, third, and fourth years went on what the second years thought of as exciting and "excursions". The older students preferred the turn "nightmares".

Rani sighed, laying her head on her hands and swinging her feet up over her head, knees still on Lana's bed. Ramsey had just beaten Lana – just _barely _– at hand to hand, and the latter sat down on her bed, making a face.

"Just 'cause you're about ten feet tall," she mumbled, pushing some of her hair off of her red with sweat forehead.

"No, though, you've gotta plant your left foot more firmly on the ground," Ramsey said. "See, it's your weak spot. Not the whole time," he continued quickly, seeing the annoyed look on Lana's face, "but when you start getting tired you shift most of your leg to your front foot." He put his legs into fighting position and leaned forward a bit. "See, try to push me over." He glanced at Tonia, nodding.

The half-Yamani girl looked at the large boy for a moment, shrugged, and put her hands up to push suddenly. Ramsey toppled a bit but caught himself, ready for the attack.

"Thanks," he said to Toni, who looked impressed in spite of herself and went back to dagger and fist fighting with Isai. Looking back at Lana, Ramsey said, "See? Don't do that, and you'll probably be able to get me next time. You last longer than I do otherwise, even if I am bigger."

Lana glared at the boy as she pushed herself backwards on the bed and leaned against the wall. Ramsey shrugged. "Rani?" he said hopefully. "Come on, just one round."

Rani made a face. "No, I'm doing work, Rams. Maybe in a little while." She leaned her elbow on the bed and let her cheek fall onto the fingers of her soft, unintentional fist. "This is going to take forever as it is."

"Fine." Ramsey plopped down on the chair at Lana's desk. "But come on, isn't that the point of these things? Practice fights and all that?"

"We also have to do other work, unfortunately." Toni sat down next to Rani's legs, smiling after the mock-fight she had won against Isai. She glanced at the words that Rani had scribbled down. "What is that, history? You know the Deer won't 'appreciate that handwriting!'"

Rani grinned at Toni's last few words, which she'd spoken just the same as their new history professor, the Shang Deer, always did. It wasn't that they didn't _like _the Deer, but she was very particular about certain things. "It's just notes," Rani sighed. "I'll rewrite it, I suppose."

Her foot was shaking wildly behind her, itching to let out energy. She felt a warm hand grab it, jumped, and turned to see Ramsey smiling at her. "Just one round!" he said, letting go of her foot.

"Fine. One," agreed Rani, standing and stretching. "But I really need to finish that work!"

"You have your daggers?"

"Mmm," the small girl said, reaching for her bag. _One round, _she promised herself. _And then I will get back to work; _but she hardly even believed herself.


	24. Meetings and Hugs

Time passed slowly, dragging by, as the days grew hotter and the summer approached. On the last day of classes, Rani could hardly contain her excitement, knowing that there were only four days before the summer outing began. The students going on the trip were allowed to go home first, and Rani planned to. She would travel home with the rest of the students who lived in her village and come back three days later, rested and refreshed and ready to leave. Toni and Ramsey, who lived too far away to bother going home, were going to go home with Rani; she had written ahead and her mother said she would be happy to let some of Rani's Shang friends stay with them for a few days.

And then, when they came back, they would travel north to Corus, where many of the students would see the city for the first time, for some sort of business the Whale needed to discuss with the king. She wouldn't tell the students what it was, though they were all hoping to find out once they were there. Assuming everything went well, the plan was to then head along the shoreline to Pirate's Swoop. The Lioness herself had agreed to look over the students, something she had never done before, if she wasn't called away to fight. She had offered to let the students stay with her for the night, but the Whale had demurred, saying that half the point of the trip was for them to live for themselves in the wild. After Pirate's Swoop, they would continue to travel south, hugging the shoreline. They had no plans of where to stay or what to do; instead, they had to be willing to work with whatever happened.

Lana glanced at Rani and placed a firm hand on her shoulder. "You have got to stop bouncing around, Ran," she said, grinning. "You are going to jump right off of your bed in a minute, and then you'd be all black and blue for the trip."

Rani made a face. "I suppose so," she sighed, forcing herself to calm down. "I'm just so _excited_!"

"We noticed," said Ramsey, chuckling, from the chair on the other side of the room. "Not that you haven't been talking about it _constantly _or anything, but…"

"You tease, Mister, but where will you be when I refuse to take you to my place? Stuck here?"

"Shut it," Ramsey said, smiling all the same.

Isai and Toni wandered into Rani's room. Isai sat on the desk chair; Toni plopped down on Rani's other side.

"Did you two finally get her to stop jumping about?" Toni teased. "It seems like she's mostly been a bouncing blur lately."

"I don't know why I put up with you," Rani mock-scoffed, sticking her nose in the air and crossing her arms over her chest. "Here I am, giving two of you homes for a couple nights, letting you practice in _my _bedroom, and you are just so unkind." She slid her eyes to the side, glancing at Toni, before throwing out her arms and tackling her best friend onto the bed in a hug.

* * *

Remembering the previous trip from home to the school, Rani couldn't help but be nervous as she travelled to her village. She was glad to have Tonia and Ramsey, though, and tried to stick close to Selah's side; the older girl looked more nervous than Rani felt.

Fortunately, the students made it home easily, and their Shang Master companion departed quickly. Rani took Toni's hand and skipped happily to her house to see her mother, Ramsey right behind them. "Mama!" she called out as she entered the house, looking around.

Running footsteps could be heard coming towards them, and before Rani knew it her mother's arms were wrapped around her. "Sorry, Rani," her mother said, smiling. "I meant to meet you when you arrived, but you got here earlier than I expected!"

"Well, there were no new students from our village this year," Rani pointed out, "so the group traveled at our speed, not at that of students who have only made the trip once. And we wanted to get out of there quickly because of – what happened last year."

"Yes, I can imagine," murmured Lia, letting go of her daughter. She glanced at the other two Shang students, letting her eyes linger on their strong, ever-hopeful faces. "Hello," she said to them softly. "I'm Korani's mother, of course. You can call me Lia."

"I'm Toni," the half-Yamani girl said. "Well, it's Deltonia, but that's just too much of a mouthful."

"And I'm Ramsey," supplied the boy. "It's very nice to meet you." He held out his hand to the woman, who laughed, shook it, and hugged both him and Toni in turn.

"Come," Lia said. "Let's get you children settled in, shall we?"

* * *

**A/N: **As usual, sorry this took so long to get up and please review! :)


	25. Tournament

Somehow, all that Rani could think about was that they would soon get to meet the Lioness. She was excited to be in Tortall's capital, of course, and she was having a marvelous time looking about at everything, but what she really wanted was to rush to Pirate's Swoop and learn from the King's Champion. And, of course, it wasn't just the Lioness's strength and legend that made Rani yearn to meet her so much; she knew that woman must have _something _special about her if her uncle had fallen in love with her. As far as the girl was concerned, the Lioness must have been more than the ordinary woman, more than in just being a warrior, for Liam to love her despite the magic that she commanded. After all, Rani knew of her uncle's fear of magic, though she had never really understood it. He stayed away from people with magic, especially when they had as much as the Lioness did.

"Rani? Are you listening to me?" Lana's sharp voice cut into Rani's thoughts.

"Hmm? Sorry," the girl replied, shaking her head. "I was thinking."

"Of course you were. Listen, we can do some shopping if we'd like! The Whale told the Masters to tell us, though of course you weren't listening." Lana's lips were pursed but amused at the fact that her friend could even ignore the promise of shopping in such a city, as though even the thought ought to be impossible.

"Uh, I'll look around at the stalls and stuff." Rani shrugged, glancing at Tonia, who stood next to her, looking at her feet. "I don't think I'll buy anything. I don't exactly have a lot of money, Lana."

"Well, excuse me," Lana mumbled, offended by the smaller girl's tone. "You don't have to 'look around' if you don't want to…"

"Nono, I do," Rani said quickly. "You coming, Toni?"

"Yeah," murmured her friend. "What about you two?" she asked, glancing at the boys, who had listened to the entire conversation.

"Why not?" Isai said, shrugging. "Should be good for a laugh watching Lana moon over everything, anyway." He narrowly avoided a friendly slap from the tall girl. "Anyway, there are some good weapon and armory shops nearby. The city is great for stuff like that."

"Great," Lana said, smiling. "Shall we just wander for now?" The others murmured their agreement and followed Lana over to some shops.

Rani and Toni mostly followed the other three around, saving their money while their friends bought what they liked. Rani bought only two things: a pretty but affordable necklace for her mother and a new dagger for Tonia, both of whom she needed birthday presents for. She knew that Toni desperately needed a new dagger, as her old one was dull and more or less refused to be sharpened. It was a bit costly, but Rani knew that her friend's appreciation, when she received the girl, would make it worthwhile.

The students' stay in the city was relatively uneventful. They camped outside of city borders and came back in the morning. The only really exciting part of the next day was that they got to see the inside of the palace, though after a while of standing around, the students began mumbling and forming into the small groups that they generally stayed in. Rani placed her right hand on her hip, letting the other hang at her side, as she yawned; they had woken earlier than usual, and everyone was tired. Isai stood at Rani's side, while Ramsey leaned against the wall, Lana next to him. Tonia, though, still looked around a little with wide eyes, taking everything in. And so, because she was one of the few students paying attention to their surroundings, she was the first to notice the woman walking towards them.

"Rani!" she hissed, tapping her friend on the shoulder. "Someone's coming over here!"

Mostly uninterested, Korani turned to see what Tonia was looking at. Some of the other students were murmuring about the woman's appearance now as Rani gasped, her eyes suddenly growing. "That's the queen!" she whispered to her friends. "Uncle Liam described her to me! That must be her! No one else looks like that…" She whistled quietly. "He couldn't capture her beauty in full, though, not in a letter."

"She's gorgeous," the half-Yamani girl agreed quietly, nodding.

"Hello, everyone," the queen announced loudly yet gracefully, and everyone immediately hushed up. "I heard that a group of Shang students were coming to the palace, and I admit I was curious about you all!" She smiled, and Rani thought that she grew even more striking good-looking, if it were possible.

"I suppose I should introduce myself," the woman said. For a brief moment, Rani thought that the queen was acting strange, as though anyone could not know who the woman was. Actually, though, she realized that many people probably did not know who the queen was, never having seen or heard a description of her. Indeed, Toni hadn't known who the woman was, only that she carried herself with great stature. "I am Queen Thayet of Conté." She paused for a moment as the students murmured excitedly before speaking, quieting them down again. "I heard you do not have very much to do today, and I would certainly like to see how one of Tortall's strongest group of students fights, if you are all willing to show me."

Not too long later, the students were gathered in the practice rings usually reserved for the pages who trained at the palace. Only the fourth-year students would be using practice weapons, and while Rani yearned for the feel of her sword in her hand, she knew that she ought to feel privileged to show off her skills for the queen at all. The students had been paired up and separated into groups; Rani found herself facing Lana. They grinned at each other, ignoring the pairs around them as a Shang Master gave them the order to begin.

Lana grinned and moved forward to strike at Rani. The smaller girl ducked and rolled easily and purposefully onto the ground, kicking out a leg to knock her friend over. Lana stumbled but steadied herself as Rani leapt to her feet and grabbed Lana's wrists from behind. Before Lana could wrench around, pulling her arms out of Rani's hands, Rani jumped onto her friend's back, wrapping her legs around her hips and digging one of her heels into the spot right next to Lana's hipbone.

Lana yelped, letting herself fall backwards in an effort to squash Rani, though of course se didn't want to seriously injure her. Rani, smiling, let go just before Lana hit the ground and quickly rolled so that she could place her hand on her friend's throat. Lana lifted her hands in an effort of surrender, and a Shang master joined them to declare that Rani had won the fight.

Rani pushed herself to her feet, reaching out a hand for Lana to take. The larger girl took it, letting Rani help her to her feet. "Nice job," she said, smiling.

"Thanks," Rani replied, panting a little.

The winners and losers watched as their group finished up and as the next group wandered into the practice rings. All the while, the pages and squires of the palace and watched with them, as did even some of the knights who happened to be at the palace at the time. The queen, meanwhile, did not sit in any sort of throne to watch the fights, possible falling asleep, as Rani would have expected any other queen to. Instead, Queen Thayet stood by the practice rings, watching excitedly, clearly impressed by the talent of the Shang students. She spoke to the students around her, as though she believed they were her equals.

After a few rounds, Rani got her turn to fight again, this time against a student who she recognized by face but whose name she couldn't remember. She tried some of the same tactics she had used on Lana, along with some others, but the boy she was up against soon managed to get his hand at her throat, and he was declared the winner.

Shaking his hand, Rani returned to her friends outside the practice area. She stood Isai, who had won his first but was in the second group, and Lana as they watched Toni fight with Ramsey. Their two friends seemed to be on fairly equal footing; Ramsey was larger, but Tonia was amazing at hand-to-hand. They were the last two of the group still fighting when the rest of the pairs had arrived at a winner and loser. Everyone watched as Ramsey took the lead, bearing Tonia to the ground, but she managed to slide out of the way, getting above and behind him and kicking his back at the exact right spot that he fell to the ground. She placed her foot on the back on Ramsey's neck, smiling as everyone cheered.

One of the Shang Masters who was presiding over the fights walked to them and declared Tonia the winner as the next group, already paired up, spread into the rings. Rani bid Isai good luck as she attacked Toni in a hug.

Isai lost in the second round, and the next group involved all of the students who were still in the running. Toni was paired up against a third year student; she held her own for a while but was eventually defeated. She exited the ring, shrugging at her friends. "She was really good," was all Tonia could say about the older student that she had just fought with.

The third year student that Tonia had fount managed to beat the rest of the second- and third-year students. At this point, the girl was allowed to fight with a practice sword, and she was paired up against the fourth year student who had defeated everyone else in his year. Both students were fairly tired, and it didn't take long before the fourth-year won, but it was a good battle, and everyone was excited by the end of the mock-tournament. The boy was congratulated by his friends, and he grinned broadly as the queen shook his hand.

"Someday, that'll be us," Rani yawned, suddenly tired as she took Tonia's hand and leaned her head against her shoulder.

"Yeah," Toni agreed, firmly squeezing Rani's hand. "Of course it will be."


	26. Advice

**A/N: **Tried to capture Alanna as well as I could here, but I haven't read the Lioness books in a while, so we'll see! Mostly tried not to try to focus on her actual appearance too much and more on Rani's reaction. Anyway, won't even bother with excuses for my updating speed, or promise that it won't take as long next time, but hopefully it won't!

* * *

"Pirate's Swoop," Rani sighed, seeing the Lioness' home in the distance. "Can you imagine, Toni? It won't be long until we're there, meeting the Lioness, and she'll give us advice and everything!"

"Yes, you've mentioned," Toni replied dryly, but Rani knew that her friend was just as excited as she was. Tonia just wasn't as verbal about it.

"What advice do you really think she can give?" a voice from behind them asked snootily. Rani twisted her head to see that the words had come from a student two years above them, a girl who she knew by name, Saniya, but who she was fairly certain she'd never had a conversation with before. "Honestly, she's just a knight. They teach them rubbish at the palace. I'm glad we didn't have to fight with the palace pages. We would have crushed them. It simply would have been _pathetic._"

"Who are you to talk?" Rani scoffed. "How far did you get in the mock tournament, not even past the first round?" She remembered because Saniya had faced Ramsey, and had been rather sulky when he had beaten her. "Maybe we could have beaten a few pages, but I'd like to see you go up against the Lioness in a swordfight. My uncle said – "

"Oh, that's right. You're the Dragon's sister's brat, aren't you? His pretty little niece. Well, pretty may be a stretch. You're only here because your uncle was famous. You didn't get past the first round either, did you?"

"She got to the second round, actually, which is more than you can say for yourself, considering our friend Ramsey practically pummeled you!" Tonia snapped, annoyed. "The Shang Masters don't ask for names until someone's chosen. You ought to know that, unless you forced your way in. They probably didn't even know who Rani was at the time. So go bother someone else."

Saniya was opening her mouth again, no doubt to shoot back a nasty retort, but a redheaded girl standing next to her tugged at her arm and mumbled, "Come on, Niya. Let's go." They walked through the group, away from Rani and Tonia. A few moments later, the redhead walked back over and said, "Don't mind her. A branch of her family have been knights for ages, but they completely ignore the poverty of Niya's side of the family, and she hates them as a result. I'm Nessa, by the way," she added, holding out her hand to the younger girls, who shook it and introduced themselves in turn.

"It's nice to meet you," Tonia added. "And we don't hold it against her. Well, Rani might."

Nessa laughed. "I suppose it's fair enough. Anyway, I ought to go find Niya. See you later." She smiled and strode off, falling back far enough to find her friend.

"Anyway, Saniya was wrong," Rani proclaimed, now that there was no one paying attention but Toni. "The Lioness is amazing, and Saniya will have to realize that when we meet her."

"If you say so," Toni said doubtfully in response to the comment about Saniya realizing such a thing. She shook her head. "Come on. Let's walk faster."

It was midday when they reached Pirate's Swoop, and the Champion and her husband met them as they arrived. Rani was nearly shaking with excitement, as were many of the other students. Hardly an hour later, the students had been split into pairs and were fighting with their wooden practice swords. The Champion wove throughout them, viewing their technique and softly giving them advice. When she reached Rani and Tonia, she paused, as she had with all the pairs, watching them jab at and block each other. When Toni struck at Rani in a way that would have drawn blood, had they been using real swords, the Lioness stopped them and gently pushed Rani's hands into a different position.

"See? You could have blocked that," the Lioness said, stepping back. "Try that attack again." Toni obliged, coming at Rani, who steadied herself and held the sword in the way that the Champion had told her to. "Good. You can't win on defense alone, but learning how to block is important. You'd do well to do a lot of dodging, too, especially when you're so small." She began to walk away, but stopped, looking back at Rani. "You look familiar. What's your name?"

"Korani Liasri," the girl replied so softly and nervous that she could hardly hear herself; she was sure her words hadn't reached the Lioness' ears.

"Hmm? Speak up."

"My name is Rani. I look familiar because you knew my uncle."

"Did I?" The Lioness considered Rani for a moment. "Are you sure?"

"Yes'm." It occurred to Rani that her uncle had never mentioned her, but she didn't mind. She was sure that a then-seven year old would be a fairly boring conversation topic when one was with one's lover. "His name was Liam Ironarm."

"I – " The Lioness shook her head. "I wasn't aware that he had a niece."

"Yes'm."

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Rani." It was impossible to read her studied knights' face as she walked away.

"Wow," Tonia sighed. "She knows your name now."

"Yes." Rani stared after the Champion for a moment before turning to her friend. "Stop mooning after her. You're starting to sound like _me._"

Toni laughed. "Let's keep fighting, then. No one could possibly confuse us while my sword is destroying you."

"Destroying me, huh?" Rani said, grinning. She lashed out with her wooden weapon suddenly; Tonia only managed to block at the very last minute. "Let's see that, then."


	27. New Rules

**Author's Note: **If anyone is still following this story… I'm so sorry that it always takes me so long to update! I know I keep promising not to take so long, and here I am half a year after my last chapter. But I am finally getting to the plot (especially so next chapter, if all goes as planned) so hopefully it really will be more often now! Anyway, hope you enjoy and reviews would be great to let me know people are still reading this :)

* * *

"I know that many of you do not like the idea of my being here. The Shang Whale was part of this institution for a long time, and I recognize that her presence here will be sorely missed. I do hope that some of you can find it in you to forgive me for the fact that I have the unfortunate task of being her successor. In many ways you will find that her absence here will in no way affect your education. Any Shang masters who chose to stay and teach here were welcome to do so, and you will see many familiar faces. I appreciate and respect many of the decisions that the former head of this school has made."

There was some quiet chatter, but for the most part the students were firmly focused on the Shang Hawk's words. His eyes shifted slightly, staring at the whispering second-years. He stayed silent for a long moment, until one of the students finally realized that he was looking at them. They all quieted down, looking a bit sheepish.

"Thank you. Now, as I was going to say. I will stay with the Whale's academic choices, but you will notice some changes around here, in the general rules of the school. Slight… modifications, shall we say, to the way that you live your everyday lives. But now is not the time for that. I prefer that you learn the new rules by experiencing them. I was your age once. When an adult tells you what to do, you hardly have the urge to listen. So we'll wait until the rules are broken before you learn what they are. Break a rule once, and you will be told not to do it again. Twice, and the consequences will be more dire."

His sharp eyes scanned the room again, but no one dared to speak now. One look from the Hawk was enough to make everyone be quiet. "That's all for now. Eat and return to your rooms."

He sat, and finally people seemed to realize that they were now allowed to talk. After a short while, a gentle hum of words filled the room, but it was slightly subdued. It was clear that everyone was discussing the speech, but no one wanted to chance the Hawk hearing their individual words.

Rani and her friends, for their parts, were staring at each other, wide eyed, as though they hardly had an idea of what to say. Eventually, Lana spoke up, saying, "Well, that's a bit of a ridiculous system."

"You mean not telling us what the rules are?" Isai murmured.

"Uh huh. I don't see what he hopes to achieve from it. This whole deal with, what was it, learning the rules by experiencing them – it doesn't really make sense, does it?"

"And who is he to make modifications?" Rani said. "The system here works. It has for a long time, and the Whale knew what she was doing. What is he going to do to help? He ought to know not to mess with what we know works."

"Maybe he really thinks what he's doing is for the best," Toni offered. The others looked at her in mild disbelief. "Well, I didn't say it _is _for the best," she added quickly. "But maybe he has some idea of what he's doing. Maybe things were different when he was here, and he thought that it was better."

"How would he know?" Lana asked, swallowing in the midst of talking, which led to a coughing fit. Heads turned around them, and she quickly spluttered out, "I'm fine, I'm fine!" She waited a moment as things calmed down and everyone's attention slowly turned away from them before continuing, "I mean, maybe his system worked when he was here. But our system works now. He can't just go changing it."

"Unfortunately, he can," Tonia sighed. "I guess all we can do is hope it won't be too bad. That the changes won't be too major."

"If they weren't too major, he wouldn't bother pointing them out. Or he would just tell us what they were. Why do it this way? It must be something big – not to mention something he expects us to do," Rani pointed out, "or he wouldn't be sitting around waiting for us to, well, do it. Whatever it is."

"I suppose you'll be the first to find out," said Ramsey, who'd been keeping out of the conversation but couldn't seem to hold himself back now.

"And what is _that _supposed to mean?" Rani snapped playfully, turning on him.

"Oh, nothing." He grinned.

"You saying I break the rules?"

"I don't think I said that." Ramsey took a large sip of water, looking around the room as though he'd never spoken at all."

"Sure." Rani gazed at him for a moment before staring back at her food. "It just makes me queasy."

"The soup?" Lana joked. "Yeah, me too."

"I'm serious. I just don't like the idea of everything changing like this."

"He's right in one way at least," Tonia said so quietly the rest of them would have missed it if they hadn't been sitting so close to her. "We don't want to like him, do we? We could just be reading into this too much. If the Whale had changed the rules herself, no one would blink an eye at it. But we don't like the idea of a newcomer. So we're not going to like anything that he does, either."

"Maybe," mumbled Rani, but she didn't sound as though she believed her friend's words – nor had any urge to take them into account.

* * *

For all of their concerns, there didn't seem to be much of a difference in the ways they lived their day to day lives as they started with classes. With the exception of the standard coming and going of Shang teachers, everything seemed to be more or less the same. Although the new teachers were – harder, somehow. That was the way Rani thought of it. Not harder in their grading, although they were generally stricter and gave the students more work. It was more than that. They weren't just strict in the classroom. They seemed to have a fairly icy attitude about the students. They taught their material and whisked out of the room at the end of class, not bothering to stay behind in case any of the students had questions. Rani had certainly had teachers she didn't like in the past, but they generally tended to be available for any students who were having difficulty. It was as though the Hawk had brought on Shang Masters who had absolutely no interest in the actual well being of the students, only that they listened to their every word as though they were coming from the Gods themselves.

After a couple of weeks of this, Rani decided it was time to find out what was going on. She lingered after mathematics one day, approaching the Hare once the rest of the students had left the classroom.

"Um, Hannah?" she said, glad she had at least once teacher she could talk to and depend on. "Can I ask you something?"

"I suppose so. What is it?" the teacher responded, smiling.

"Well, it's just – well, I don't really know how to say this – but the new Shang masters – "

"Yes, Rani?" The Hare's smile was slipping from her face, although she seemed as though she was trying to keep it in place.

"Are they – different, somehow?"

"I certainly don't know what you mean." There were definitely the beginnings of a frown forming on her face, and all Rani could think was that she certainly _did _know what the girl meant, and was choosing not to answer.

"It's just – they seem to hate us." A part of her was starting to regret bringing the situation up at all, but it was too late to just leave now. "They want to be anywhere but here. Why is that?"

"The new teachers all went through training around the same time as the Hawk. It was before I was around. I don't know any of the Masters very well. Including the Hawk. That's all I can say." She scooped up the day's homework and headed for the door. As she reached for the doorknob, Hannah stopped, seeming to hesitate for a moment. Rani took a few steps forward, confused, and nearly leaped backwards when the woman turned her head just the tiniest bit towards her.

In a nearly silent murmur, the Hare said, "Just know that some of us who believe in the Whale's methods may not be staying much longer."

Immediately, she turned back towards the door and opened it, holding it for Rani to step through. "Now don't be silly, Rani," Hannah said, false cheer saturating her voice. "You're just imagining things, you know. You're just not used to it." And with that, she took off, leaving the girl staring at her back, wondering if she had imagined the Hare's whispered words – and if not, what they meant.

Before she could think very hard on the matter, though, Rani heard a loud scream. She twisted her head so hard that she wrenched her neck. Rubbing it, she glanced back after the Hare for a moment before giving in and running towards the shriek.


End file.
